Misfortune Made Her Sword
by The Redundant Button
Summary: If a scream were a blade, revenge would be a lot easier. An OC-centric story following two guilds as they brave the world of Sword Art Online. Not all choices are easy and the consequences are sometimes further reaching than anticipated. On broken knees they fight, for there are few things in this world stronger than a promise kept. Chapter 5: Setting the Record Straight
1. The Day of Beginnings

**A/N: Hello, hello, and welcome to my first SAO story. For anyone who didn't see it in the summary this fan fiction will be centered around my OC cast. There will be mentions and small cameos of the main characters, but you'll be seeing more of Argo and Lind than you will Kirito or Asuna. Sorry, not sorry. That said, enjoy!**

 **Warning: This story deals with themes of sexuality and depression.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: The Day of Beginnings**

November 6, 2022

Floor 1

"Would you _please_ hurry up and pick one?"

The voice was a familiar one, but the pouting face that leaned over her shoulder was not. Ashe pretended not to notice that Renee didn't need to stand on her tiptoes to do so.

"Just go with the sword there. It's easy to use and we can get you a different thing later." Renee pointed a slender finger at the one-handed starting sword in the shop menu. She didn't bother trying to disguise her impatience as she started bobbing up and down.

Logged into the game, a cutlass already strapped neatly at her hip, Renee was ready and raring to go. The only thing keeping her from the fields beyond the starting town now was her indecisive friend, still mulling over weapon types.

There was no magic in this game – as Ashe had been sad to learn – but the variety of weapon skills she had to pick from was staggering. Her own knowledge of weapons started and ended at the simple one-handed sword so in light of all these new options she was having a hard time settling on just one to start.

"Ashe…"

Renee was gripping her arm now, her name half a threat to drag her into the fields unarmed if she didn't pick soon.

"Alright, alright. How about this one?" Two taps on the store menu later and the item dropped in her inventory. Renee stole a quick peek and Ashe watched her face twist.

"A halberd? Really? You're gonna die."

Well that settled it, then. Just to spite her, Ashe equipped the pole arm and, once the weight settled comfortably at her back, she turned back to her friend. "You'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?"

"Absolutely," Renee shot back. Then without wasting another moment she grabbed hold of Ashe's arm once again and started pulling her along. "Now come on!" she urged. "We've wasted so much time!"

"The game's been open half an hour!"

"Half an hour wasted!"

She let go once the both of them had settled into loping run, passing all manner of shops and fantastic avatars as they went. A few in particular caught her eye as they rounded a corner close to the edge of the city.

A group of players, all of them hollering, were gathered around another.

"Jump! Jump! Jump!"

Ashe slowed down to see what was going on. The boy in the middle climbed up onto the barrier separating the city from the expanse of clouds. The crafted face cracked a smile; he gave a quick bow, and then flipped backward off the barrier with a cry of 'Geronimo'. His friends gave another rousing shout and a second climbed up. Ashe walked up to get a better look this time.

"Hey, what's the hold-up?"

She turned to see Renee jogging back over then gestured toward the group of players. The second boy jumped then, tucked his legs into his chest and somersaulted through the air until he disappeared into the clouds. It looked like a lot of fun.

"Can we try this?"

She looked again to Renee. The black-haired girl clapped her on the shoulder, said, "I'm not waiting for you to respawn," and ran off again.

"H-hey!"

That answered that question.

Ashe would have liked a bit more time to meander around the starting city just to explore or mess around. Unlike her party member this was her first time seeing the Town of Beginnings, or anything within the newly released game, Sword Art Online. Her mind was still trying to grasp at the fact that this was all a virtual environment. But Renee's barely contained excitement at being back was contagious.

Ashe took off after her.

The city could wait for now.

.

* * *

.

"You're going to die," Renee said, and repeated herself each time Ashe failed to land a hit on the boar. The third time the boar ran her friend down she was practically singing.

Ashe shot her a look in the short space between the beast's attacks. The girl sat happily on the grass, chin in her hand and elbow on her knee, black hair tied back. She bore a slight resemblance to the girl Ashe knew from the real world but that was it. A few big changes and armful of small ones left her barely recognizable. To be fair, Ashe wasn't much better. She hadn't increased her height, unlike Renee. She felt she was tall enough as she was. But she'd 'touched up' some of her features, downplayed a few others and coloured her hair a vibrant red.

After all, why not?

"A little help, maybe?" Ashe asked, and gestured to the boar with a sweep of her arm.

She would have liked to say she knew what she was doing but she didn't. She'd had little luck in activating any sword skills and with her health already dipping into the yellow she was willing to put her dignity to the side.

Renee would never let her hear the end of it if she died already.

With a big smile on her face, Renee shrugged her shoulders and picked herself up off the ground. "I suppose I could show you."

She held a hand out to Ashe and hauled the other girl back to her feet.

"So here's what you gotta do," Renee began. Already Ashe was regretting her decision. Still, she bit her tongue and watched as Renee spread her feet and reeled back her arm. She held the position a moment and Ashe heard the high pitched whine before she saw the cutlass take on an orange glow.

The black haired girl lurched forward without warning, sword arm lashing out to cleave the boar in two. And she stood with a hand on her hip and a stupid smile on her face when the creature burst into blue polygons. She gestured with her hands then, as if to ask, 'you get it now?' When Ashe said nothing, Renee sighed and marched back over.

"You do it like this, see?" she said as she grabbed both of the redhead's hands and pulled them into the ready position just behind and to the side of the girl, her halberd behind her and waiting to be swung overhead. Renee kicked her friend's feet into place next. "Just like that."

"I don't get it."

"Just- just hold it like that a second, okay?" Renee held out her palms as she stepped off to the side. "All you have to do is get the starting motion down. You'll hear the skill charging if you do it right and then the game will take care of the rest."

That much was easy enough to understand. And she could in fact hear the same whirring noise Renee's sword had made a moment earlier.

"There you go!" Renee's cheering confirmed it. "Now go get him!"

Wait, what?

A rock flew past her, trailing light behind it and struck another boar in the head. It whirled on the two girls, stamped the ground and drew its head in close, the telltale sign that it was about to charge. It barreled toward her and Ashe hesitated before whipping the pole arm down. She saw the blue light only for a moment, then the bronze of her weapon again, and the attack smacked down on the boar's shoulder.

It squealed, then kept going and took Ashe down in the process. The redhead fell back into the grass and watched her health bar go from green to yellow.

"You're holding it too long."

Ashe looked over to see Renee catch the boar's tusk on her sword and send it skidding over the field. She hopped back over and pulled Ashe back up.

"The skill will time out if you hold the position too long. You have to release it once it's charged."

Well that would have been nice to know. But that begged another question.

"How do I know when to do that?"

Hurriedly, before the boar prepped its next attack, Renee tried to find the words. It wouldn't be a big deal if they got hit and died. It'd be the trek back out here that would be the most troublesome.

"It's like… I don't know. You do the motion, pause so the game recognizes the skill, and then you do it. You don't stand and _wait_." Her flurry of hand motions didn't make her meaning any clearer. "Look, we got time – just try again. Here he comes."

Left with that, Ashe had little choice but to quickly adopt the stance Renee had shown her before. She heard the skill cue up as the boar charged. It charged, and in a much smoother motion Ashe lunged forward with her left foot. The blade fell dead center on the thing's flat snout and wiped out its remaining HP.

Ashe stayed like that a few seconds after the polygons dispersed. It was that easy? Slow clapping behind her snapped her out of it and she looked back at Renee.

The black haired girl gave her a thumb up and a quick, "Congrats."

She must have been smiling because Renee asked, "We having fun now?" There was only one answer to that.

"Can I kill another?"

Her friend smiled wide at that. "Give me just a second and I'll round them right up for us," she said, and suddenly Ashe wasn't so sure. Renee stooped down to pick up another rock, her cutlass still held tight in her dominant right hand, and hurried over to where a small group of boars had spawned a minute before. She spun a tight circle before they noticed her, smacking three with her sword, kicked a fourth and whipped the rock at one more that spawned as she bolted back.

"Run," was all she said as she beat a hasty retreat past Ashe, a stupid grin plastered on her face.

"H-hey, wait!"

The redhead tore off after her friend, the group of boars hot on both their heels. Soon Renee peeled away from her, making a beeline to her right. One of the boars followed her and Ashe saw the flash of light out the corner of her eye as it exploded. That still left her with four more and no choice other than to keep running.

She didn't even see the two players ahead of her until she barreled into the one and they both went down in a heap.

"Oof… Well, take a look-see at what I've found, Rikki."

Ashe looked down then to see the boy below her. He was thin with long dark hair tied back in a ponytail in typical pretty boy fashion.

"How about you give me a hand here instead?"

The reply came back as Ashe apologized and picked herself up. She turned and got a look at the other one: tall with a head of shaggy brown hair.

Rikki fixed his grip on the starting long sword in his hand and glanced back at both of them over his shoulder. "Well, come on," he said, and gestured toward the pack of boars. The beasts had stopped their charge with the appearance of two more players, but a couple were already stamping the ground again to indicate they were about to take another go.

The other boy sighed and got to his feet. Swinging his sword arm lazily he stepped around Ashe. The first boar charged, then the next two. Both boys' swords took on a green glow, and it was that detail that clued Ashe in to do the same.

Their arms shot forward, only slightly out of sync and the first two boars went skidding backwards over the grass with glowing red damage lines carved into them. The third continued unperturbed and met with Ashe's overhead strike.

Her heavier weapon had a higher damage value than did their swords, but even with the assistance of a sword skill and a clean hit the boar still had half its health left.

Two more «Horizontals» flashed up ahead, followed closely by the death animations of the two creatures. One more swing of her halberd and the third followed.

The fourth boar burst into pixels a moment later and through the animation Ashe could see Renee sheathing her cutlass back at her hip. "Hey, you made it."

Forgetting the other people still present, the halberdier marched over and stretched her friend's cheeks between her fingers.

"You're such an asshole!"

Renee flailed her arms and struggled to form words with little luck. Ashe continued to pinch and pull until she heard a cough behind her.

The two boys were still standing there, Rikki drumming his fingers on the pommel of his sword and the other effeminate one whose name Ashe still didn't know eyeing them amusedly. Seeing her look at them Rikki tried to dispel the awkwardness.

"We're not interrupting anything, are we? I mean, we can go… off. Somewhere."

Seizing the chance, Renee broke away and dove for cover behind the boys. Poking her head out from between their arms she said, "No, no, stay. She'll kill me otherwise."

She said that like Ashe was actually capable of beating her. The other boy evidently took that as his cue to chime in. "I can't very well turn a blind eye to a girl in need," he said with a deliberate wave of his hand. His friend appeared less than agreeable to the idea.

"How do you know they're girls, and not some chubby middle-aged guys?"

Well, that was rude. Renee apparently agreed as her face twisted into a frown and her hand shot up like a rocket. "I am nineteen!"

"So you don't deny the guy part?"

The other boy got a good chuckle out of that. But despite Rikki's questioning he didn't seem too concerned about the girls' genders as he went on to say, "Just ignore him. Rikki can be a little… stubborn. I'm Cyril. And you two are…?" He looked between both girls.

"Ashe," the redhead said and raised her hand. "And that one," she pointed at Renee, still hiding behind the boys' backs, "is Renee."

Cyril nodded along thoughtfully for a moment. Then with a swing of his wrist he pulled up his menu, punched in something, and a translucent screen appeared in front of Ashe. Renee must have received it, too because she saw the other girl look down at something.

-Invite-

-Cyril would like to be friends-

She tapped the circle option to accept and looked back up to see the boy smiling back at her. He elbowed Rikki in the side a moment later and with an annoyed groan the other boy sent a request of his own. Just as before, she and Renee both accepted.

All that out of the way, Cyril turned back to Renee. "You handled yourself pretty well in that fight, by the way. Were you –"

"A beta tester?" Renee finished for him, and then nodded.

"Don't get your hopes up," Ashe said. "She spent most of her time screwing around."

"Were you one, too?" Cyril asked, and his face fell slightly when she responded in the negative. "Ah, well, one beta tester is still pretty good, yeah? Say, you two want to party up with us?"

The two girls exchanged quick looks. Renee shrugged her indifference to the idea and Ashe looked to Rikki. He stood with his arms crossed and his mouth settled into a hard line. Ashe wondered if he just looked mad like that all the time. Still, he didn't say anything against Cyril's idea and she took that as the go ahead. She said, "I don't see why not."

The words were barely out of her mouth and the long-haired boy was already sending the invite. Ashe accepted and an additional two names and health bars appeared below hers and Renee's.

"So do you know any quests we could take, or something?" Rikki asked.

Renee thought on that for a moment then said, "Yeah, a few. There's a bunch you can get in the starting city. And another handful in each of the neighbouring towns. I don't know if we'll be online long enough to help you finish more than a couple of them, though."

"But we will be back later tonight. With another person, too," Ashe said when she saw the boys' excitement deflate.

"Right, right, he's getting off late. What name is he using, do you remember?" Renee asked.

Ashe had to think on that a moment before she could recall. "Tokusa, I think he said?"

"Boyfriend?" Rikki asked. He spared a quick glance over at Cyril as he posed the question.

"Brother." The redhead corrected him. He gave a curt nod in response to that then looked again at Cyril as the boy stepped away from the little circle they'd formed.

He drew his sword and swung it through the air a couple of times before he turned back around to face them. "If that's the case then quests can wait. Anybody up for a bit of exploration?" Renee positively beamed at the idea and Ashe and Rikki tossed their hands up in favour.

.

* * *

.

"You did what?!" Cyril was struggling to get the question out without laughing. In the grass a few feet away, Renee was doing about as well.

Snickering and looking very pleased with herself she said, "I put a Vendor's Carpet around a corner with a couple stools on it and a buddy of mine chased people toward it. You wouldn't believe the number of players that went flying over it. It was beautiful!"

Just listening to them made Ashe shake her head. She'd heard that story before, about Renee's fun exploiting the game's mechanics. Anything placed on those carpets couldn't be moved by any player other than the owner, much to the dismay of any who came booking it around any corner the dark-haired girl had picked. Unfortunately, that wouldn't be happening again. Renee had been dismayed to tell her about the patch that had been made to prevent such antics.

Ashe glanced over at Rikki fighting a wolf a short ways away. They'd called it exploring but eventually their group had gone back to battling mobs. They were a great distance out from the starting city by now, although no closer to the neighbouring villages Renee had mentioned, and the bottom of the floor above them was tinted pink from the early evening sky.

She and Renee would have to log off soon.

"You look like you're having fun," she said as she approached the swordsman.

With a final swing Rikki finished the wolf off and glanced back at her. "Do I?" She nodded and he bared his teeth in a grin. "Guess I am, then." It had taken a bit of time and just as much prodding from Cyril to relax but the brown-haired boy had dropped his angry mask.

"Well, colour me surprised. You can smile," she teased.

"Rude," he shot back, although he didn't sound too annoyed by the comment. "My face works just fine."

Ashe shrugged and leaned on the shaft of her halberd. "Consider it payback for calling me old earlier."

Rikki gave her a look then raised his hands, palms out. "Fair enough." He looked past her then at Cyril and Renee still chatting away in the grass, then all around them. He put a finger to his lips then to tell her to be quiet and shuffled off to the nearest boar. Catching his meaning, Ashe stepped away from the other pair. Rikki prodded the beast with a quick jab and backpedaled away. It let out a loud squeal as it whirled on him. The cursor above its head went from neutral yellow to red in an instant. Rikki managed to halt the boar's charge and hold it with his sword. He stole a quick glance over his shoulder, and then sent the boar to run free… in a straight shot toward Cyril.

Both Cyril and Renee looked up when they heard Rikki shout at them and Ashe watched as the boar bowled over the grass and crashed straight into the long-haired boy. It picked him up with its flat snout and tusks and tossed the male up through the air before it exploded at the end of Renee's cutlass.

Cyril's health dropped to yellow as he fell back to the ground.

Rikki got to him first. Renee was too busy clutching her stomach and laughing to help him back to his feet.

"Feeling lucky yet?"

Swatting away the hand his friend offered, Cyril got back to his feet and brandished his sword. And with a sound that might have been the breath of a laugh he lunged forward.

In a flash of silver the two boys crossed blades. Cyril pushed the taller boy back and thrust his arm out. Rikki's sword was knocked away and Cyril's came back to catch him across the chest. It carved a red damage line along its path and sent Rikki stumbling back, muttering curses.

"They do know there's a dueling system, right?" Renee, having gotten herself back under control, strode up next to the redhead to watch the boys fight. Ashe shrugged her shoulders in response. Rikki found his sword again and the two boys took off across the field.

"How come Cyril's the only one with an orange cursor?" Ashe asked as she watched the boy in question take the brunt of one of Rikki's sword skills. She'd seen the Cyril's cursor bleed orange after his first lunge but Rikki's still remained green.

As usual, Renee flashed a smile that said she had all the answers. "Easy. Cyril attacked first, and since they're not fighting a registered duel the system is interpreting Rikki's actions as self-defense."

Ashe nodded along. That made enough sense, she supposed. She spared a quick glance at the clock displayed in the upper right corner of her vision and, spying the time, looked back to her friend. She didn't even have to say anything before Renee waved her off.

"I know, I know. We'll go once they're finished."

"Fair enough," Ashe replied. They didn't really know the boys but they'd been partied together for a little while now and it would be pretty rude to just up and leave without a word.

That time came quickly enough.

"You fight like my sister," Rikki's shout rang over the clash of swords.

With a hearty laugh Cyril retorted, "I've fought your sister; that's a compliment!"

Both girls looked back up to see that Rikki and Cyril had involved a few of the nearby mobs in their unofficial duel, perhaps not intentionally. Three wolves circled the pair, and each boy's eyes darted back and forth between the beasts and each other. Two jumped at Rikki, who whirled around to knock them away. Seeing his chance Cyril went to drive his sword through the other boy's chest. The third wolf pounced then, and came down on the long-haired boy's back.

"Ah, shit! Shit!"

Even from where they stood, Ashe and Renee could hear his panicked cursing. One of Rikki's wolves burst into polygons as Cyril went down. The taller boy laughed at the sight of his friend's health dipping into the red and turned to deal with the other wolf. He killed it quickly enough, but took his sweet time as he sauntered toward Cyril still struggling underneath the beast.

The wolf bit him one more time and the last of his health bled out. Cyril's body exploded and his name disappeared from their party. Rikki chose then to do away with the beast and after the polygons dispersed he threw his arms up in victory.

Both girls slow-clapped for him then Renee tossed a small red vial his way. "Congrats. Now drink up or you'll get dead before you can fetch him from town."

Rikki caught the item in his left hand and tapped it to bring up a description. "Regenerative potion?" He looked back to them and Ashe pointed up. He caught her meaning a moment later and with an embarrassed 'thanks' downed the whole thing. Ashe watched as the red line representing Rikki's health started to climb back up in little increments.

"We're going to head off for a while now, okay?" Renee said before thrusting a thumb in the direction of the starting city. "The re-spawn point is in town if you want to go pick him back up. He should pop up there in a couple minutes."

Rikki nodded as he made his way back over to them. "Right, okay. So I'll see you guys again later tonight, then."

"That's right," Ashe said as she turned to Renee. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, just… give me a second."

Ashe wasn't surprised to hear all of her friend's enthusiasm gone away as the girl pulled up her menu. She'd been so happy to be back that the idea of returning to the real world so soon after had to be more than a minor annoyance.

Renee furrowed her brows then, and without looking up from her menu asked, "Is it missing on your menu, too?" Unsure of what she meant, Ashe came around behind her to see. Renee set her menu to visible and pointed it out for her. "It was there when we got on, I know it."

"What are you guys talking about?" Rikki, still standing there with them looked just as confused.

"Nothing. Her log out button is just missing," Ashe told him, then turned back to Renee. "There's nothing written but it probably still works. Try hitting it."

Renee tapped at the empty button on her menu once, then again a couple seconds later when no prompt appeared.

"Next idea?"

"Whatever. It's probably just you." Ashe pulled up her own menu and scrolled down to find the button. "Or maybe not," she said as she spotted the same empty space where the option should have been.

"Mine's the same."

Ashe looked up to see Rikki staring at his own menu. That made all three of them short one logout button. That couldn't be a coincidence. Ashe didn't need to be an expert on video games to know that that was a really bad thing to have go wrong on launch day.

"Is there any other way to log out?"

Renee shrugged her shoulders as she looked at the boy. "Not that I know of." She didn't appear all that concerned about the issue anymore as she closed her menu. "It'll be fine, though. Something like this, the GMs will fix it soon enough." She sounded sure of herself as she stepped away from them, sword arm swinging back and forth beside her.

"I'm going to go grab Cyril. You said the re-spawn thing was in town, right?" Rikki asked as he turned to start heading back.

"Yeah, it's right inside the big castle near the teleport plaza. You can't miss it."

"Big castle. Got it. I'll catch you two later," Rikki nodded and then started running. The two girls stood and watched him for a bit, and before long the brown-haired swordsman looked small.

Placing a hand on her hip, Ashe let out a sigh. "So, what now?" She had expected to have logged out by now, but if they were going to be stuck here until the GMs fixed the bug then she might as well try to fill the time. Renee opened her mouth to answer and shut it again when they both heard a sound like an alarm blaring in their ears.

Ashe cringed at the noise and looked to Renee for that answer to this too. And then both girls were enveloped in pillars of bright blue light. Before Ashe could get another word out the field and her friend faded away. It lasted only a moment, and then the light faded and her surroundings returned. But what she saw was not the grassy fields stretching out in all directions.

Cobblestones clicked under her boots and trees and medieval stone buildings lined the wide streets. She hadn't done anything in the way of exploring when she'd first logged in but she recognized the location as the central plaza in the Town of Beginnings..

"Renee?"

Ashe looked around her for her friend. She was hoping that this was all just part of some official announcement, maybe apologizing for the logout glitch, but she figured Renee would have a better idea than her. But one by one more people began to appear in the plaza around her and soon her vision was filled with unfamiliar faces. She caught no sight of her friend and heard no reply when she called out again. It wasn't helping that the people around her were screaming for the GMs to come out.

"What's going on?"

"Can we log out now?"

"Hurry it up!"

So it hadn't just been Ashe and her party who couldn't log out.

"Um, hey…?"

Feeling a tap on her shoulder Ashe turned around. A taller man in his late twenties was looking at her, silver hair held up by a black bandana and an iron dagger on his hip.

"Sorry, but you wouldn't happen to know what this is all about, would you?" he asked. Unfortunately, Ashe likely didn't know any more than he did. She shook her head and his face fell slightly. "Right, I suppose not." He chewed on his lip a moment then extended his hand to her then. "I'm H-… Rapha. I'm Rapha."

"Ashe."

His handshake was about as steady as his voice but he seemed like a nice guy, albeit timid. She didn't have time to form any further opinion on him before their short conversation was ended by one player shouting over the din.

"Hey… look up!"

Both she and the male craned their heads up and were met with an odd sight. The bottom of the second floor high over their heads was covered by brightly coloured red hexagons. Ashe could see something written inside them.

"Warning," Rapha muttered beside her. "System announcement?"

The plaza around them went quiet again, the players' shouts turned to hushed whispers as everyone strained their ears to listen. Rapha beside her sucked in his breath and the red sky above them began to sag. It gathered together in the middle, like a slow dripping faucet, and then began to take on a new shape. The red drop changed, transforming into the shape of a giant person clad in a heavy, hooded robe of the same colour. Gloved hands extended out from dangling sleeves, no arms connecting the two. Ashe couldn't explain why, but that and the figure's lack of a face filled her with apprehension.

"Is that a GM?"

"Why doesn't he have a face?"

Judging by the multitude of nervous comments by the other players around her, she wasn't the only one experiencing the feeling.

The robed figure spread its arms out to its sides and a man's voice silenced the players once again.

"Welcome to my world, dear players. My name is Akihiko Kayaba. As of this moment I am the only human being alive with control over this world."

Ashe recognized that name. She remembered Renee, talking about the game following its first announcement, and gushing over it during the beta test. The girl had mentioned that name any number of times. Executive director of SAO and designer of the Nervegear were two of Renee's most oft used mentions. Even as Ashe tried to wrap her head around that, the voice continued.

"You have likely noticed by now that the log-out button has disappeared from the main menu. This is not a bug. I repeat, this is not a bug – it is a feature of Sword Art Online. From this point onward, you will be unable to freely log out of the game until the summit of this castle is conquered."

Castle? Renee had spoken of a castle earlier, hadn't she? Right here in town? The figure continued before Ashe could finish that thought.

"Furthermore, the NerveGear cannot be removed or shut down via external means. If forceful means of exit are attempted…" He paused, and a heavy silence filled the square. "…the high-powered microwaves emitted by the NerveGear will scramble your brain and shut down your vital processes."

 _Thud_.

Ashe looked beside her to see Rapha fallen back on his rear, eyes wide from shock. "H-hey, you okay?" she asked. Her own legs were shaking as she tried to absorb the reality she'd just been presented with. She had to kneel down beside the man to make them stop.

And still the figure continued.

"…The brain frying sequence will commence upon any of the following circumstances: ten minutes of no external power; two hours of network disconnection; removal, dismantling, or destruction of the NerveGear. The authorities and media in the outside world have already announced the details of these conditions to the general public. At present, the friends and family of several players have already ignored these warnings and attempted to forcefully remove their NerveGears, the result being…"

The figure paused for breath. Ashe held hers.

"…that sadly, two hundred and thirteen players have already been permanently retired from both Aincrad and the real world."

Somebody started screaming. Rapha beside her buried his head behind his knees and under his hands. Ashe couldn't move. She didn't trust her legs to hold her up anymore. This couldn't actually be happening.

"There is no need to worry about your physical bodies back in the real world." The voice kept going, and Ashe covered her ears. It wasn't real. This wasn't real.

"You may rest assured… and focus on conquering the game. However, please proceed with caution. As of this moment, Sword Art Online is no longer a game to you. It is another reality. The standard means of resurrection will no longer function as they did previously. When your hit points dwindle to zero, your avatar will be permanently deleted… and the NerveGear will destroy your brain."

An image of the fields flashed her mind then, of Cyril pinned beneath a wolf. Cyril had died. But he couldn't be dead. That just wasn't possible.

"There is only one condition through which you can be freed from this game. Simply reach the hundredth floor at the pinnacle of Aincrad and defeat the final boss who awaits you there. In that instant, all surviving players will be able to safely log out once again."

In the perfect silence that followed that statement Ashe looked back up. Past the robed figure and bleeding sky she could still make out the bottom of the second floor. It was only one of the ninety-nine floors still stacked over the heads of every player here. How were they supposed to get all the way up there? In the two month beta period no one had seen anything past the sixth floor.

"Finally," the robed figure continued still, "let me prove to you that this world is now your one and only reality. I've prepared a gift for all of you. You may find it in your item storage."

She heard the familiar ringing as Rapha, somewhat recovered, pulled open his menu. Following his lead Ashe opened her own and looked in her inventory. Listed right at the top was an item she didn't remember.

«Hand Mirror»

With the tap of a button and a sparkling sound effect the little item materialized in her hand. She wasn't sure what she expected to happen, but when she looked into it, all she saw reflected was the face of her avatar. She glanced over at Rapha and saw him staring blankly into mirror.

Suddenly, he vanished behind a veil of bright white light. The same happened to multiple other players nearby, and then to Ashe as well. It only lasted a handful of seconds, and then her sight returned. But she didn't see Rapha's silver hair anywhere. Had he gotten up and moved?

"Ashe?"

The halberdier looked back to her left and found an unfamiliar woman's face.

"…Rapha?"

The woman nodded slowly and Ashe had to give herself a moment to wrap her head around it. The silver-haired knife-fighter had been replaced with a tired looking woman. Mid-length black hair parted in the middle hung free over her shoulders to frame her sharp features. She looked like she might have been in her mid-twenties but the dark bags under her eyes made Ashe wonder.

Ashe looked back into her own mirror again a moment later and found nothing of the redheaded warrior she'd crafted mere hours earlier. Her clothes were still the same but the face staring back at her was her own real life face. She had to touch it to be sure, but from the oval shape to the sharp bridge of the nose and the brown hair falling loosely past her shoulder there was no mistaking it.

"This concludes the tutorial phase of Sword Art Online. I wish you the best of luck, dear players."

His final words still hanging in the air over their heads, the robed figure began to ascend. The top of the hood melted into the system warnings above him and the rest of his 'body' followed. The wall of hexagons disappeared immediately after.

Silence filled the plaza. And as Ashe looked up at the bottom of the second floor a gentle tune from an NPC band, wholly wrong for the situation, was carried in.

Rapha hauled the girl to her feet as the first few groups of players began to scream. Then everyone was screaming. Ten thousand voices ripped at her ears and she held tightly to Rapha's arm to keep herself from joining them.

She wasn't sure how long they stood there, the two of them, neither speaking a word, but when she came back, the crowd of players had thinned and there was a new hand on her other arm.

"Found you…"

Hunched forward, one hand on her knee and breathing heavily, Renee stood there. Dirty blonde hair fell haphazardly over an elfin face as she straightened back up. Her familiar face was less familiar now without her half-rim glasses and her brown eyes had lost their usual levity but it was still her.

"Listen, we gotta go. I already found Rikki, but we need to go now."

Any number of questions buzzed around in Ashe's head and died on her tongue as she heard Rikki shouting over the din of the players still in the plaza. Renee tugged at her arm more fiercely to get the girl to start moving. Rapha disentangled herself from Ashe's other arm and stepped back.

The brunette looked back at the woman and the knife-fighter gave her a flimsy smile. "I'll be okay. You go."

There was no chance for a reply as Renee dragged her away, pulling her through the remaining droves of people. A boy, maybe a couple inches taller than her came bolting over. With a long face, nose smattered with freckles, and a head of short blue-black hair, Ashe didn't recognize him as Rikki until he grabbed Renee by the shoulders.

"The revive point; where is it?!"

Letting go of Ashe's arm, Renee patted the boy's hands before brushing them off. "Calm down, buddy. I'll take you there, okay?"

Then they were moving again with Renee at the front to guide them. Ashe had expected it to be further away, but it was a straight shot from the north end of the plaza. Rikki spotted the large castle at the same moment and took off running before she or Renee could say a thing.

He was coming to a slow stop halfway across the cavernous room just inside the large double doors when the two girls caught up. Ashe looked up and around as she stepped inside. Despite the number of windows, the room was dim and the ceiling soared into shadows overhead.

"Where is it?"

The boy's head swiveled back and forth, frantically searching the space for the revive point. But all any of them found was the large stone tablet resting by the far wall.

"It was right there," Renee said as she threw her arm out toward the monument.

"This isn't a joke, Renee! Where is it?!"

"Really? And here I thought we were all bloody laughing! I said it was here and it was. It's not my fault that it isn't anymore."

Rikki looked like he was about to collapse by that point. "This can't… This can't be happening. Cyril is…"

Renee walked up to him then, hands up and palms out. "Woah, woah… let's not get ahead of ourselves here. There's nothing to prove that any of what he said is true."

"Then where's Cyril, huh?"

While they argued, Ashe walked up to the monument. As she got closer she could begin to pick out names written into the surface, all of them listed alphabetically. She found her own listed halfway down the first column. There was one directly below it, grayed out with a line struck through it. Curious, she tapped it and was presented with a date and time. Another line just beneath the first two listed the cause of death as disconnection.

So that was it?

Ashe felt a lump form in her throat as she made the realization. She scanned the adjacent columns to find the C's and stopped when she came to Cyril's name, grayed out and crossed off.

"What's it say…?"

Rikki came up behind her and leaned over her shoulder, straining to read the text that came up when she tapped on his friend's name. His face fell and he retreated. His face fell and he retreated. He opened his mouth to speak. Nothing came out and he fell back against and slid down the nearest wall.

Feeling drained, Ashe found where Renee had balled herself up and sat down beside her.

"I'm sorry…" The muffled apology came from behind the blonde's knees.

"Don't you start on me now," Ashe said. "This isn't your fault."

The other girl lifted her head, then, just to hug her legs closer to her chest. She wouldn't even look Ashe's way. "Except the part where I made you buy the game, you mean."

"My money. My NerveGear. My choice. Now stop it."

Too much had already happened in the last hour for Ashe to be able to deal with this. Rikki had quieted down by now, but none of them were really calm. She just wanted to sit, to not talk, and try and absorb all of what was going on. They were trapped inside a game where player death held the same consequence as real life death. That thought drew her eyes to her health bar, nestled comfortably in the green. The little numbers listed beside it were now the physical representation of her life. If it reached zero, she'd be gone. Her mind raced back to the fields, to Cyril pinned beneath a wolf and the three of them laughing around him.

She laid her forehead on her knee then to push the thought away.

"Ashe…" Renee called her name, and continued once the brunette was looking at her. "Whatever it takes, I will get you home."

That brought a small smile to her face. It was little better than the fragile one Rapha had given her back in the square as she'd been left behind, but it was something and that was comforting.

"Yeah," Ashe said. Then, "So, smart one, what now?"

Renee was the only one here with any prior experience with the game. As one of the lucky thousand people to be accepted into SAO's two month beta testing period, she had more knowledge about this game than most, even if she had just screwed around most of the time.

"I mentioned it before but there's another town nearby: Horunka. There's a quest available there where the reward is a nice one-handed sword. If you want to switch weapons, now would be the time."

It was a tempting thought. Supposedly a one-handed sword was easier to use than the halberd Ashe had chosen earlier. Still, she'd gotten used to the pole arm after the last few hours in the fields. It'd be weird to switch now.

"No, I'm good. You?"

"Same," Renee said as she got to her feet. She checked the curved sword at her hip and then extended a hand down to Ashe. "You ready to go? The sooner we leave the better."

"What about him?"

Renee helped Ashe up before she looked over at Rikki, still sat with his head in his hands. She shrugged. "If he wants to come, fine. I won't force him. I'm going to check a name on there real quick and then we'll go, okay?" She gestured toward the monument and Ashe made her way over to the male.

He didn't look up or even acknowledge her until she crouched down in front of him.

"… What do you want?" he asked from behind his hands.

Ashe could see his eyes peeking out between his fingers. She took a moment to pick her words carefully. "Renee and I are going to head over to the next town. We're thinking we'll try to get some experience before everyone floods out of here."

"Go then."

His curt reply gave her pause but she persisted. She held out her hand to him.

"Come with us."

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* * *

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Next time: Getting Ahead

 **So there you have chapter one. Later chapters probably won't be as long as this one ended up being.** **This is planned to be a long story and updates will be irregular, though I hope to figure out a regular schedule at some point. I do want to thank Crysina, who's story Stee1 & Sw0rds helped me with the planning of this story.  
**

 **That's all for now. If you read all this way, why not drop a review? Let me know what you think worked, what didn't, etc. That's all for now. Have a good one!**


	2. Getting Ahead

**Chapter 2: Getting Ahead**

November 7, 2022

Floor 1

Mornings sucked. That much was fact as far as Renee was concerned. They were cold, and her bed was so, so warm. Sunlight poked through the curtains like a ghoul's grin, deceitful and cruel as it shone in her eyes and tried to wrest her from sleep. It was hard enough to pull herself out of bed on a normal day but yesterday had felt so long and she was still so tired. So it was Renee's thought that the sun rose too early that morning… and so did Ashe.

"Nooo…. Five more minutes."

She tightened her arms around her friend's waist in hopes of dissuading her from getting up.

"You're the one who wanted to get an early start today," Ashe retorted as she tried to pull the other girl's hands apart. "Come on, let go."

"But you're comfy…"

Renee heard Ashe huff as she said, "You should be doing this with Masaru, not me."

"He's not here, though," she responded. Ashe groaned and, still trying to pry apart the blonde's hands, rolled over. Renee rolled with her and got a mouthful of blankets and the air knocked from her lungs as she hit the floor.

Ashe's feet hit the floorboards beside her and the brunette leaned forward. "Time to get up." With a drawn out groan Renee rolled onto her stomach and picked herself up. Talk about a rude awakening.

It was a small room they'd rented in Horunka's sole inn. There was a window and a small table on the far wall, a chair, and a single bed that the two of them had opted to share for the night. Ashe thumbed through her menu a moment before being enveloped in a brief flash of light. When it faded she was all dressed for the day. Renee had noted before but despite losing the red hair, she had kept the colour in her clothes. The red collared shirt poked out from under her leather chest plate and system of straps. Following her lead, Renee did the same, equipping her own long-sleeve blue shirt, slacks and leather vest.

"When'd you get that?" Renee asked as a glint of light in Ashe's hand caught her eye. Ashe turned around at the question, still midway through tying her hair back. Evidently she hadn't realized that that, too, could be done through the menu. Renee stepped around the bed and behind the girl to get a closer look. "Oh, it's cute, too. Any bonuses?"

"Plus one to strength."

Renee nodded her approval. It was a nice little accessory, probably something Ashe had picked up for cheap in the town shop. It hadn't been that late when they arrived the day before, so after starting and opting to put on hold the «Secret Medicine of the Forest quest», she and Ashe had done some shopping to improve their base gear. Being a small village on the first floor Horunka didn't have a very generous selection to pick from, but any bonuses were good this early in the game. Strength was especially good for Ashe, who still insisted on wielding her heavy pole arm.

"You want to go grab Rikki and we'll head out?" Ashe asked as she finished with her hair. Renee sighed and gave an exaggerated roll of her head.

Making her way past the bed again she climbed up onto the table and pushed the curtains out of the way. Morning light poured in and Renee squinted against it as she opened the window. The town's ambience trickled in. The winding melody played off the roofs of the houses and drew her eyes upward. If it weren't for the bottom of the second floor blocking out the sky, she almost would've been able to think that she wasn't still in Aincrad. According to all the logic she retained from the game's beta period, falling asleep in here should have logged her out and allowed her to wake up in the real world. Honestly, up until she had woken up just now a good part of her had still held onto the hope that that would still be true despite yesterday's announcement.

She shook her head to stop that train of thought. Stuff like that was a bit too heavy for her this early in the day. Besides, she needed to look down, not up.

Renee leaned further out the window and looked down into the alley between the inn and the NPC house next door. "Wakey, wakey down there," she called. Rikki craned his neck to look up at her and squinted. "Come on, it's your stuff we're getting." He waved her off but she waited there until she saw him start to stand up. He had more than enough cor saved up from killing boars and wolves in the fields the day before to afford a room of his own but the miser insisted on sleeping outside to save on money. She and Ashe had offered twice already to give him the money for one but he still refused.

Ashe was waiting at the door when Renee pulled the window shut. "He awake?" Renee nodded and the two went to meet him outside.

He met them at the door, still looking groggy in his starting clothes. "You mind if we stop somewhere else first?" he asked after stifling a yawn.

"You'd sleep better if you slept in a bed," Ashe said as she stepped out into the street. Renee neglected to mention that it hardly made a difference inside a game. He grunted and looked away. "So," Ashe continued. "Where to?"

"This way."

Rikki led them to the town's weapon shop, a curious destination considering his vice grip on his wallet the night before. He'd refused to shop around with them last night upon their arrival when she and Ashe had made some additions to their gear. The building itself was pretty standard for its kind: stone walls, a steady trickle of smoke coming out the chimney and the purposeful clanging of metal working coming from inside.

"You know," Renee said as they stepped inside. "We're getting you a free sword today." He wasn't listening to her as he walked up to the blacksmith and opened up a trade. He picked something from the shopkeep's wares and she wondered if the miser was loosening his purse strings.

He wasn't, she learned, as he leaned his elbows on the counter and started haggling with the NPC. Ashe gave her a confused look then so she tried to explain. Renee pulled up her menu and set it to visible. "It's a skill," she said as she scrolled down the list to find it.

«Purchase Negotiation»

"It just let's you get discounts when you buy from NPCs."

There were any number of skills available in this game, but this was one of a few Renee saw no merit in. Getting a deal on an item was nice, but there was no real need for it. Unlike in the real world money would be plentiful in here once they got started. And this early on in the game she knew Rikki's proficiency wasn't high enough to make his haggling attempt worth it. He started frowning then, and smacked the button to finish his purchase. That was all the confirmation she needed to know she'd been right.

Ashe looked startled by it, but only for a moment. "All done?" The boy grumbled something before he nodded.

Raising her hand Renee asked, "Do we get to see?"

His mouth turned to a hard line but he reopened his menu and a moment later his peasant's clothes were covered by a heavy green coat with a simple banded iron chest plate over top.

"So," he started as she turned to the girls, "how do I look?"

He seemed so self-conscious about his new armour set that Renee couldn't help herself. "Like a sketchy merc."

"No one asked you." Rikki's response was instant.

And as usual Ashe had to smooth things over. "You look fine, Rikki. Like a warrior."

"Thank you," Rikki said and puffed out his chest.

Rikki's ego aside, it seemed like his business here was done and Renee was itching to get moving. "So if you two are done flirting over there…"

The comment earned her a light smack on the head from her friend and a swift, "Shut up." Renee noted that Ashe hadn't denied it.

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* * *

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The safety of the village was far behind them, invisible through the network of trees that made up the forest they'd be hunting in for the next while when Rikki started to lag behind the other two.

"You're not getting cold feet, are you?" Renee asked. It was a valid question but to her left Rikki shot her a black look in response. Unbothered, she rolled her shoulders. It was fine if he was, but if he dug his heels in now they'd be here longer than they had to be.

They'd arrived in Horunka village within a couple hours of Kayaba's announcement and Renee had led their little ragtag bunch to an NPC home to pick up the «Secret Medicine of the Forest» quest immediately after. Neither she nor Ashe needed the long sword that was the quest's reward, but Rikki did. The starting iron long sword belted at his hip would be useless before long. She knew it, and so did he.

"So remind me," Rikki started as he drummed his fingers on his sword's pommel, "We're killing the ones with the flowers?"

Renee nodded. "And the normal ones if we don't see a flower."

"But not the ones with the fruit…" he said.

Renee pretended not to notice his apprehension as he said it. "Yeah, don't touch those ones."

Killing one of the predatory plants with a flower would give them the item «Little Nepent's Ovule», the thing they needed to finish the quest, and killing the normal ones did nothing but help more Little Nepenthes to re-spawn. But they'd seen as a group what the result was of attacking a Nepent with a fruit on its head.

Their plan had originally been to start and be done with this quest the same day the game launched. But by the time they'd reached Horunka it was getting dark, and someone else was in the forest killing the giant plants. The kids had both looked about middle-school age and one of the young duo had hit the Nepenthes' fruit. When attacked, even if it was only a scratch, the fruit would explode and emit an odour capable of drawing a large number of the eyeless creatures to the area. Since very few players had set foot outside of the starting town by that point, the area was chock full of the creatures and it served its purpose as a lethally effective trap. One kid in a leather half coat had managed to fight his way out, a daring feat to say the least. The other hadn't been so lucky.

Unsurprisingly Rikki had been hesitant to take on the beasts after that. With a little convincing from an equally nervous Ashe, Renee had relented, and the group had turned back to town to rest up and return the following morning. His new armour was a surprise, but it was a good step up from his starting clothes.

Ashe nudged her and pointed off to their right. "Found them."

Renee followed her finger and spotted the carnivorous plant dragging itself along by its roots. More of the flowerless and fruitless varieties were meandering about a ways behind it, too. Despite the name «Little Nepenthes», there was nothing little about them. At about a meter and a half tall they were shorter than Ashe and Rikki by a notable margin but they nearly matched Renee in height. Still, she would cling to whatever few inches she still had over the creatures. It made this a little less nerve-wracking.

Then Rikki posed the question on all of their minds. "So, who's going first?"

They all exchanged looks and, when they still appeared hesitant Renee raised her hand. "Guess it's me." She stepped forward, cutlass in hand and looked around. There were no bright red flowers in sight, of course. They couldn't be that lucky.

"Their weak point is the spot between the pitcher and the stalk. Use horizontal sword skills whenever you can, no verticals, and if their fat heads start expanding get ready to dodge to the side, not back. We'll focus on one at a time until you guys feel comfortable tackling them on your own, okay?" She saw Ashe and Rikki nod and the boy drew his sword. "Both got your potions?" They nodded again and Renee saw Ashe poke around in the pouch at her side.

"Just making sure," Ashe said when she caught Renee looking.

It was weirdly comforting to know that she wasn't the only one on edge about this. At level 3 the Little Nepenthes weren't that strong, and they were normally content to live and let live so long as you kept your distance, but Renee recalled dying at least a few times in the beta test trying to get this lousy ovule. The frustration from that, coupled with the low spawn rate of the flowered variety and the dozens of other players also farming Nepents and she'd given up before completing the quest. She'd switched to the curved blade she now held in her hand following a hunch shared with her by a fellow tester. The blonde fixed her grip on the sword's hilt. It was funny how a collection of polygons under her virtual hand could feel so reassuring.

She looked around once more for any flowers or fruits and, finding none of either variety, took a moment to breathe. There weren't any players here either, and she wanted to finish before that changed. Time to go.

Renee darted forward and the Nepenthe cried – an ugly piercing sound – and reeled back. It raised its vines in a violent display, a tell tale sign for the first of its two available attacks. It thrust one forward toward her and she pushed off hard to the side. The appendage hit the ground with a smack and the sword in her hand came to life with an orange glow and a metallic whir. Red pixels spilled from the gash created as she dragged the blade across its side and through bulge where its two arm vines connected to the main body.

There was an added flash effect to signal a critical hit and its health stopped just shy of yellow.

"Switch," she called over her shoulder, and jumped back the moment her foot met the ground. Rikki moved first and traded her places.

He'd learned how to handle that long sword pretty well by now and it showed as the creature's health dropped to red with two fell strokes. Ashe struck the killing blow with a thrust from the side and with another cry the carnivorous plant erupted in a shower of blue pixels. The trio all shared a quick cheer and a joint high five in celebration of their first successful Little Nepenthes kill. It was nothing to brag about but it seemed an appropriately happy moment.

It would have been even better if Renee hadn't had to jump to reach both their hands, purposely held too high for her to reach normally.

"You guys suck," she said to a smug grin from Rikki and a quiet laugh from Ashe.

After that, confidence in their skill over the giant plants only grew and the three of them split to tackle the plants separately. Ashe and Rikki with their higher strength stats were able to make quick work of the creatures once they'd gotten used to their attack patterns. Watching the brunette land those heavy-hitting two-handers gave Renee a new appreciation for the pole arm.

The day was well underway, with still no sign of a flowered Nepent when she heard Rikki start cursing.

"Ah, shit… clear back!"

Having just finished off yet another Nepenthes, Renee peered through the pixels to see the problem. For a brief moment she wondered if he'd attacked one with a fruit and activated the trap and she readied herself to bolt. Instead she saw the Nepenthes' head, swollen and leaning back.

Rikki bounded to the side to escape and Renee hurried to do the same, hooking her arm with Ashe's to pull her clear of the corrosive fluid that the giant plant spewed forth. With a range of nearly five meters, dodging backward in time was difficult. But quite possibly the most annoying part of the attack, and a good part of the reason Renee had originally given up on the quest, was its side effects.

In terms of dealing damage the pale green fluid wasn't all that bad. It was the hit to durability their equipment would take on contact, and the penalty to movement speed that were the real harm. Already more than three hours into the hunt for the ovule the durability of their weapons had dropped considerably. More than a couple hits from that spray and they'd be unarmed. And if they were slowed on top of that, getting away would be difficult.

"Kill it already," Renee yelled as she came back to her feet.

"I'm trying."

The stream of fluid slowed to a trickle and she watched the now level 3 swordsman shuffled closer to it. Sword poised, he pulled his arm back and lashed out with a «Horizontal» to end it.

The pixels were still flying when the call rang out.

"There it is!"

Both their heads snapped around and saw Ashe pointing off to their left. Renee followed her finger and after a couple seconds spotted the bright red flower topping one of the giant plants.

"About time," Rikki muttered.

He rushed past them then, and Renee's mouth split into a grin at the sight. With a half broken laugh she gave chase, following the trail of green light his sword gave off. She could hear Ashe behind them, swinging her halberd left and right, clearing away the ones they ignored.

The boy carved a long red line across the Nepenthes' side to draw its attention. It worked, perhaps a little too well, and he didn't move quick enough to avoid the lashing vine. It slammed into his side and threw him to the ground.

Taking the opening, Renee caught the creature with a second attack on its weak point. With a piercing screech, the Nepenthes' pitcher tilted back and a yellow border wrapped around its body. It was stunned. Renee carried through the swing and snapped her arm back. The blade cleaved through the Nepenthes' stalk. Its health emptied out and its body fragmented before her.

The results screen appeared in its place, listing a sum of cor and experience gained. It was enough that if they kept at this another half hour or so they would likely all reach level 4, still well below the minimum level she'd recommend for clearing the first floor, but higher than the majority of players right now. But under the items listing the screen was empty. Her face fell and she dismissed the window. And then –

"I got it!" Rikki shouted from his spot on the ground.

"Let me see!"

Like a couple of excited schoolgirls, she and Ashe crouched down behind him and leaned over his shoulders as he pulled up his inventory and set it to visible. There it was, right there at the top.

«Little Nepents Ovule»

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* * *

.

"Nope. You've gotta answer it," Renee said as the boy looked down at the sword in his hands. It'd been more than an hour since they returned to Horunka but Rikki hadn't been able to tear his eyes from the shiny black blade since he'd received it.

"Says the one who didn't want to talk personal," Rikki muttered.

Having heard him, Renee shook her head. "Nothing too personal. No real names or anything like that."

In a town of ten houses, the inn was the only place that served food. The entire front space was set up like a tavern, with the barkeep behind the back counter offering rooms for rent as well as drinks. Stairs on either side of him led to the second floor landing where her and Ashe's room was located. And while it had only been a day since the game's official launch and the reveal of its frightening conditions, a large handful of players had already arrived, either milling about in here with them, or on their way to the forest. Even lacking the noise one might expect of a tavern, just the presence of others gave the place a more lively feel.

The NPC waitress came by their table and with a quick comment set their meals down in front of them.

Renee nodded her thanks, though the NPC didn't react, and turned back to the boy. "Come on," she insisted. "It'll be fun."

Rikki glared at her from under his brows and gave her a look that said he'd had enough fun for today. But she persisted, and soon enough Ashe leaned over the table to her rescue.

"You can ask us questions, too."

The boy arched a brow at that and Renee could see him silently debating it. She kept staring at him expectantly and eventually the boy heaved a sigh. He finally sheathed his new «Anneal Blade» and leaned back in his chair. "Alright, fine. Shoot."

He didn't seem too into this, but that was okay. When it came to a game of twenty questions, Renee had enough enthusiasm for the both of them. "So, how old are you anyway?" she asked.

"You said nothing personal."

"It's just a number."

His trademark frown made another appearance then, not that it dissuaded her any. Although it had been at Ashe's insistence that he'd come with them at all, if they were going to stay partied together then it couldn't hurt to get to know each other a little better. As things stood all she knew about the boy in front of her was his character name.

Grumbling and looking more than a little reluctant to answer, he said, "Twenty-one."

"Real funny."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

He didn't appear to like that comment very much. Renee had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. "Nothing. It's just… I didn't think you'd be older than us." He didn't like that either. Brows creased, Rikki crossed his arms over his chest and stared her down from his seat across the table.

"So how old are you, then?" Rikki asked as he turned to Ashe.

Ashe pointed to Renee. "Nineteen, same as her."

He hummed at that and opened his mouth to pose another question. Renee was quick to cut him off.

"Nuh-uh. Her turn now."

"But I wasn't done."

She held up her index finger to silence him. "One question per turn." It wouldn't be fair otherwise. Renee gestured to her friend then.

Ashe drummed her fingers on the table as she thought and Renee enjoyed watching her eyes dart about in search of a question whose answer wouldn't spill too far over into his real life. "Why, exactly, did you want to sleep outside last night?"

Honestly speaking, Renee was curious about that as well. It wasn't like you couldn't sleep outside, but aside from the obvious issues of comfort, avatars didn't disappear when you slept which left them vulnerable. Without the guaranteed protection provided by a system-locked door, it wouldn't surprise Renee if someone decided to try their luck with manipulating some poor sap to loot their inventory.

This issue didn't appear to occur to him. Rikki eyed her for a few seconds, apparently having expected something else, before he made some sort of noise in his throat. "I don't know. I don't like spending money when I don't need to." He pointed to himself. "So it's my turn again now, right?"

"I thought you didn't want to play?" Renee asked.

"I'll take that as a yes," he said, and proceeded to ignore her question. He swept his hand toward her then. "So what's this?"

"What's what?"

What sort of question was that?

"Your hair," he said, and gestured toward her again. She was beginning to understand where he was going with this. "Are you foreign or something? Or is it dyed?"

Renee stole a glance over at Ashe who flashed a little smile and nudged her arm. The blonde stuck her tongue out at the girl before giving her answer. "Japanese, born and raised."

"Don't believe her; she's lying," Ashe said, and laughed when Renee smacked her on the arm. "Okay, fine. Half lying."

"Traitor," Renee mumbled. Rikki was sitting back, hands folded neatly on the table as he waited. She kind of wanted to smack him now, too. "For your information it is natural. And –" she continued when he rolled his wrist for her to go on, "I was, in fact, born in Japan. My mother was not." She held her hands up to say that that was it. He looked disappointed at the lack of a story but she had nothing else to say. "Now," she said. "It's my turn."

"But you didn't finish answering mine," he protested.

"Ask a better question next time, then."

And so they went, trading questions back and forth. An NPC came, collected their plates and replaced the girls' twice. The world outside the window was dark before long.

"Wait… your brother is how old?"

"Nineteen," Ashe replied.

Rikki looked like he was trying to wrap his head around some sort of difficult concept as he went on to ask, "But I thought you were nineteen?"

"I am," Ashe confirmed, and his expression only became more confused

Renee watched with mute amusement and saw the moment the light bulb went on in his head.

"Twins?" he asked. Ashe nodded and he smacked his hand down on the table, startling the party seated a couple tables down. He'd gotten surprisingly into this little back and forth game since it got going and, much to Renee's surprise, started honestly grinning for the first time since they'd walked out of the Black Iron Palace the day before. "So there's a guy out there that looks like a male version of you?"

"Oh, god no!" Ashe shouted, and a few players sitting about the place turned to stare at them then. Let them stare. At least her party was having a bit of fun. "We're fraternal twins. We don't look that much alike. Besides, if you ask me he just looks like a butt."

At that Renee grinned from ear to ear and added, "He's got a nice one, too."

Ashe had picked up her glass to have a drink and nearly choked on it. "Renee!"

"What? It's true. Not like you have to be jealous. Yours is fine, too." It was her friend's turn to hit Renee on the arm now, and she gingerly rubbed the spot afterward, even despite the lack of pain.

"You know," Rikki chipped in, "if you had a shield you might've been able to block that."

"Don't need one," she shot back.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Just saying. I hear idiots with one-handed swords die quick in games like these."

"Guess you'd better look into getting yourself a shield then."

Beside her, Ashe snickered behind her hand, but the boisterous air about their table had gone down a few notches.

Rikki cleared his throat quickly. "I don't have any money left for one." That was bullshit and she said as much. He'd made plenty in those hours spent killing Nepents and he'd ordered the cheapest thing on the menu for dinner so there was no way he'd squandered it all away. "Either I get a shield or I sleep inside. Can't afford both."

"So you're actually going to sleep in a bed tonight?" Ashe asked him.

"Never said that," he hurried to say.

Earlier he'd said he was twenty-one, but right now he really was turning into quite the old miser.

Not taking his backtracking for an answer, Ashe stood and Renee watched as the brunette made her way around the table and hauled the boy to his feet.

"H-hey, wait a second!"

"I will give you the money but you are not sleeping in an alleyway again." Oblivious to the staring eyes of other players, Ashe dragged Rikki across the room by his coat collar, only stopping when they were in front of the barkeep.

Still grinning, Renee leaned back in her seat and looked up at the ceiling. It had only been a day since they'd met the boy and simultaneously been trapped in this floating castle. There was no ignoring the fact that this game was dangerous. It was downright terrifying even, but it was definitely beatable. It would take time, but she had no doubt that they'd get home.

And when that happened she and Ashe could pick up their lives right where they'd left off. Until then, Renee would continue as she always did. There were some strings attached but this was a video game all the same.

She intended to have fun with it.

* * *

Next Time: Little Mace Girl

 **A/N: Hah... I managed to get this chapter done faster than I expected. And after the scare I got after putting up chapter one a few days ago, I triple checked this one to make sure I didn't forget to make any edits I'd written in brackets. For any wondering, I do plan on following the main books and Progressive novels (I own them so I might as well) but I'm not going to wait however many years for Kawahara to finish the latter. As well, I don't plan on having my OCs take over Kirito and Asuna's role in the main story. I hate breaking canon so this story is planned to work within the established events.**

 **Again, if you've read this far, review! It'd mean a lot to me to hear what you think. Have a good one!**


	3. Little Mace Girl

**Chapter 3: Little Mace Girl**

December 3, 2022

Floor 1

"We all set?"

Renee turned to address their little group as they came up to the high stone walls bordering the town of Tolbana.

Ashe was ready and she raised her halberd to show it. Rikki on the other hand gave a lazy wave and yawned. She couldn't complain, though. He'd slept on an actual bed last night, in a room paid for with his own coin for once.

"Couldn't we go later?" he asked. "It's too early for this." He was right on that account. The sun was up, but only barely.

"Not a chance." Renee jabbed a finger in the boy's direction. "The labyrinth has already been almost entirely mapped. If we can find the boss room before anyone else, we can sell the map data for good money." Rikki looked noticeably more alert once he heard that. Money, they'd learned over the last month, was a sure-fire way to get his attention.

He pulled open his menu then and his arms glowed for a short moment before his freebie «Anneal Blade» and newly purchased heater shield appeared in his hands. "All set. Let's get going."

Ashe stifled a laugh at his sudden burst of enthusiasm and stepped forward to leave. But Renee, she noticed, was now distracted by something behind her.

"Just… move over a second," she said, and pulled the brunette out of the middle of the street. Ashe found out why a moment later when she heard footsteps racing toward them. The kid barreled right past the group and startled Rikki as she ran under his arm. Braid swinging behind her and a buckler on her back, she rushed out the gates.

Renee took back her place in front of the other two then and muttered something about manners. Hand on sword hilt she said, "Now we go."

They stepped outside the town's walls more confidently than they had when they first entered. With the assistance of Renee's beta knowledge the last month had been good to them. Some efficient leveling had raised each of them to a comfortable level ten, and a crash course in weapon upgrades had followed right behind. All they needed for the latter was a good stock of the right materials, a bit of money and a blacksmith apparently. The only thing Ashe had had trouble figuring out was which items she needed to raise each of the five upgradeable weapon attributes.

Heaviness

Durability

Sharpness

Quickness

Accuracy

Once she had that all figured out, it was just a matter of figuring out which bonuses she wanted. For her part, Ashe had gone with Renee's suggestion of three to Heaviness and two to Durability. Renee had gone for Sharpness and Accuracy to the same. Rikki had scaled up his Anneal Blade to a paltry plus three in Sharpness and Durability. He was either hesitant to spend the money he'd saved up or he wasn't ready to risk another upgrade attempt just yet. In either case she couldn't really blame him. Renee had cautioned them both on the risks of enhancement failure. All the same, the improved weapons and their respective upgrades made a world of difference. The boars and wolves wandering the fields had seemed so dangerous the first few days. Now they were a dull morning warm-up. Ashe wouldn't complain about that, though. Easy was good. If it was easy then their chances of dying out here were slim.

It was about a thirty minute walk from the gates of Tolbana to the labyrinth entrance. The actual walk was slightly longer when you were stopped the off occasion to get rid of a couple boars or a pack of wolves but only just.

When they arrived at the foot of the labyrinth tower Renee stepped forward to push open the great double doors leading inside. They'd paid the dungeon a visit every day since the floor's field boss had been slain and the tower opened, but the great winding halls and bizarre shadows gave the place a rather imposing atmosphere every time. And if the field mobs were their morning warm up, the dungeon monsters, with their higher levels, were the real workout.

"Where do you think that kid was off to in such a rush?" Rikki leaned over to ask Ashe as they walked.

"Not a clue," she said. Maybe she was going to complete a quest, or meet up with a friend. "Maybe she had the same idea as us?"

Rikki frowned at that. "Hope not. This isn't any place for a kid."

"It's no place for any of us," she replied. His frown hardened, but she knew he agreed.

"Either way," Renee called back over her shoulder, "it's not our problem. She made it to Tolbana; she'll be fine."

She had a point. Tolbana was the closest settlement to the floor's dungeon, but it was also a ways away from the Town of Beginnings. Whoever that kid was, she'd lasted this long. "Still…" Ashe couldn't quite put it out of her head.

"Worry about yourself first. We keep ourselves safe. Everyone else comes second."

They fell into silence after that, but kept their ears open for the sounds of any mobs patrolling the corridors. Strangely, they didn't see any, at least for a little while. It made for easy progress up the first few floors of the dungeon. According to the beta tester there were supposed to be twenty floors in the tower, with the boss located on the uppermost floor. Whether or not that remained true in the official launch had yet to be seen. But if she was right then they'd find the boss room and be back in time to have lunch with the Rat. And that sounded good to Ashe.

They'd been walking about a quarter hour when Renee held up her hand to stop them. She held tight to her cutlass in the other. "Rikki," she said quietly.

The boy already had his shield raised as he muttered, "Why am I always sent in first?"

"Because you're the only one with a shield, idiot," the blonde hissed back.

"Get your own then," he said as he stepped past her.

"Both of you stop bickering," Ashe cut in.

They stopped and glanced back at her. Renee was the first to look back to the growing shadow of the «Kobold Trooper» coming from around the corner. She kicked lightly at the boy's heels to get him moving again and got a black look in return.

"I'm going," he muttered. He rolled his shoulders and started forward again. Ashe followed behind, halberd held ready.

The humanoid creature was met with a shield to the face as it rounded the corner. It stumbled back a step before its health bar appeared above it. Canines bared in snarl, it whipped its gnarled hand axe down on Rikki's head. He repelled the attack with his shield and drove the beast back. Red light spilled from its chest as the boy drove his sword through it.

"Switch," he called as he began his retreat.

The Kobold Trooper followed close behind and Ashe split its head open as it came back around the bend. Its body went rigid and burst into pixels a moment later. Standing over the spot where the beast fell, she asked, "Is it just me, or was that too easy?"

Renee shrugged. "Seemed pretty normal to me."

"No, she's right," Rikki said as he sheathed his sword. Renee gave him a look and he went on to explain. "It was already hurt before I attacked it."

Well, that explained that. And Renee as usual was ready with an explanation for the remaining question. "It was probably attacking another party and they just lost it."

That seemed reasonable enough to Ashe. And apparently it also marked the end of their short break. Renee waved her arms at the two and said, "Come on. If there are others here then we need to hurry." Without waiting another moment Renee set off at a brisk pace down the hall the Kobold Trooper had come from. Ashe and Rikki exchanged quick glances before setting off after her.

They came across a few other injured Kobold Troopers as they made their way up the tower. Strangely enough, though, they never saw any other parties. It was far easier progress than they'd expected until they found themselves caught between four of the towering creatures.

"Somebody switch me, please," Renee shouted as one Trooper's health dropped to yellow.

"Little busy here!" Rikki shot back as he struggled to hold back two more.

Locked in place by the fourth, Ashe couldn't move to help either. She saw light from a sword skill out the corner of her eye and then the shorter girl flew back into the opposite wall. Her health bar made a quick dip down to half, making it a near match for the brunette.

"I'm okay," she groaned.

The Kobold Trooper pinning Ashe down disengaged and wound its arm back high over its head. Taking the chance, she stepped back and the axe crashed into the ground. She slashed the creature across the chest then drove the butt of her weapon into the gash. It dropped its weapon and staggered back. One quick thrust later and it burst into pixels.

She turned back around to see Renee on her feet again, walking circles with the first Trooper. She caught the girl's eye and Renee pointed her sword at Rikki. "I'm fine. Get him."

Ashe nodded and dodged around her. Rikki's shield was taking quite the beating as he pedaled backward and moved it around to block attack after attack from each of the two kobolds still focused on him. Ashe fixed her grip on her halberd and slashed at the first of the two creatures at an upward diagonal.

With a bestial grunt it fell back. Rikki said, "Thank fuck…"

"Thank me when they're dead."

He nodded quickly. "Good. Dead is good."

Despite his defense, Rikki was doing the worst out of the three of them. In her HUD his health bar, right below hers and Renee's, was getting dangerously close to red.

"Use a potion. I'll get them," Ashe said as the kobold she attacked recovered. He gave her a look like she was stupid. "You're almost dead. Just do it."

"Fine," he grunted as he raised his shield once more to repel the kobold's axe. "Don't do anything stupid."

"I won't. That's Renee's job."

She thrust her halberd into the opening Rikki made. How lucky, she thought, that these particular demi-humans didn't wear any armour. The spear point dug deep in its chest and over its pained cry she heard a familiar voice shouting.

"I heard that!"

Good, Ashe thought as she recovered her weapon and turned on the second kobold. Its arm already wound back, she raised her pole arm to block and caught the axe on her weapon's shaft. She felt the impact of the sword skill through her arms all the way down to her legs. Her health reflected it, and the little yellow bar slid closer to red. With a heavy push she threw the creature back, and missed her chance to block an attack from the other.

The first kobold, though almost dead, was still standing, and swung its axe up in a broad arc. There was no sensation of pain in Aincrad - only a feeling of numbness where you were hit, like crawling static on the skin. That feeling swallowed her right side before she managed to recover enough to raise her halberd to catch the next swing.

She was beginning to think maybe she'd been stupid after all when the creature gripped the axe with both hands. It pressed down on her, locked her in place and set her arms to shaking in her effort to hold it back. Her health kept decreasing, and her breath caught when she saw the starting light of a second sword skill to her left, with the second Kobold Trooper behind it.

Something broke behind her and then the beast was thrown sideways. Rikki crashed into the advancing beast with his full weight behind his shield. A quick two slashes with his blade ended it and the Kobold Trooper was no more.

Renee flew into the side of the one still pinning Ashe in place. The pressure holding her down suddenly gone, Ashe watched the smaller girl push the beast back, forcing her cutlass deeper until it was buried up to the hilt. Red damage effects spilled from the wound and its health emptied out. The Kobold Trooper gave one last dying cry before it burst into pixels.

The blonde sheathed her blade and ran straight toward her. "You're okay?" she asked once and then again as she patted Ashe's arms up and down. She looked so panicked that Ashe thought it was less of a question aimed at her and more a comfort for her friend.

"I'm okay," Ashe assured her.

Renee heaved a sigh of relief. It only lasted a moment, and then she was rifling through her inventory for something. A regenerative potion appeared in the girl's hand and she forced into Ashe's.

"Drink it."

"It's okay," she replied and tried to laugh it off. "I've still got some of mine."

She moved to give the potion back and Renee shook her head furiously. "You're about to die. Drink it!"

Ashe glanced up at her own health bar. It'd been at about half when she moved to help Rikki. Now it was well into the red. She made a quiet "Oh," sound as she realized and accepted the potion. Neither member of her party, Renee especially, seemed inclined to take their eyes off of her until after she'd emptied the small vial. Her health bar pulsed once and began to climb in small increments. In a few minutes it would be almost back to full.

"There's supposed to be a safe zone somewhere around here. We'll find it and take a break." Renee sounded tired as she said it. "Are you good to keep going?" she directed the question to Rikki behind her.

Ashe saw his eyes flick upward to look at his health and he nodded.

"Good. I'll take the lead. Cover the rear."

His mouth turned to a hard line but he stayed put as the two girls passed by him to enter one of the pathways the Kobold Troopers had come through, and then fell into place behind them.

It was a quiet walk through the dungeon after that. None of them wanted to get caught between the patrol routes of so many creatures again. And so they kept their mouths shut and their ears open. Their levels were higher than any of the monsters in this dungeon, but not by much. And when the enemy could also use sword skills, it made things even harder.

"There it is," Renee said after a few minutes of navigating the labyrinth.

"What? Where?" Rikki asked from behind.

Ashe looked over the other girl's head. The path in front of them opened up into a larger chamber, much like the one they'd battled the group of Kobold Troopers in. There was only one difference she could pick out.

"The glowing stones, right?" she asked. Renee nodded.

Two tall pointed stones stood at either side of the narrow entrance into the chamber. Red lines carved into the surface gave off a bright light that Ashe hadn't seen on anything in the dungeon up until now.

A soft blue light enveloped them as they crossed the threshold and Ashe noted the icon above her health bar (like the one that appeared inside towns) that declared the space a safe zone. More of the pointed stones dotted the other entrance into the chamber.

Renee slid down the nearest wall, face in her hands and breathed. Ashe sat down beside her and Rikki went on to examine the stones.

"Are you doing okay?" Ashe asked. She thought Renee said something but it was hard to tell. "What?"

"Never scare me like that again…" the response came back loud and clear that time. Ashe didn't have to ask for clarification on what she meant.

"I know. I'm sorry; it was stupid of me."

"It was beyond stupid." Renee said as she picked her head up out of her hands. She still looked shaken up by the event. Ashe felt guilty just looking at her. The urge to inject a bit of levity into the situation came and quickly passed. Blowing off her friend's concern with a joke wouldn't help Renee to feel better.

A question came to mind then as Ashe glanced over at Rikki. The male was passing his hand back and forth through the safe zone barrier now. She looked back at Renee. "Why didn't you want to get a shield?"

Renee looked confused by the question at first, and then guarded. The girl knotted her hands and bit at her lip, but didn't say anything.

"You've been telling Rikki to get one for the last two weeks. Why didn't you?"

She shrugged. "I like my sword."

"You were also telling him that the advantage of a one-handed sword was that you had another hand free to use a shield. Last I checked I was the only one here with a two-handed weapon."

"I need to keep my other hand free," she said, and then looked straight at the brunette. "Is this important?"

Now she was just avoiding the question.

"Why?" Ashe tried one more simple question.

The other girl hesitated, chewed at her lip again and touched a finger to the bridge of her nose before she remembered that she still didn't have her glasses. "Right. Video game," she muttered. She still hadn't dropped that habit despite having spent a month in here.

"So why do you need your other hand?"

"It's for a different skill," she finally relented. "I found it in the beta and I liked it so I want it back, okay?"

That just made Ashe more curious. What kind of skill was it that Renee would sacrifice the extra defense she'd been insisting their group needed for the last month.

"What kind of skill?"

"It's an unarmed one. «Martial Arts». There's a quest to unlock on the second floor."

That did sound useful. Still, "So why didn't you get a shield for until you get it?"

She thought it a fair question. Renee, judging by the disapproving look on her face, did not agree. "There's no point wasting time training up a skill I won't use."

"Kinda stupid, though, don't you think?"

"That's my job, isn't it?"

There it was. There was the Renee she knew. Ashe smiled then, and the blonde gave a half-smile back.

It'd been just after dawn when they left Tolbana. A half hour or so of walking to the dungeon, and another hour of battling their way through it still put them at early morning by now. Even still, it wouldn't be too much longer before they started encountering multiple other parties in search of the same thing as them.

Ashe still wondered about the party they hadn't seen – the one that had left behind all those injured Kobold Troopers. Leveling up couldn't be their concern or they wouldn't have left behind so many still-kicking monsters. Treasure chests, Renee had assured her, had already been picked clean, so that was out too. A hunt for the boss room was the only thing left that she could think of.

They were still sitting there, staring at the high ceiling, waiting for the last bits of their health bars to recover when a high-pitched scream tore through the air. Both girls scrambled to their feet. Rikki was already halfway out of the safe zone, sword clenched in his fist. He checked over his shoulder once to make sure they were following and then tore off in the direction of the sound. They caught up to the boy quickly, and then Renee overtook them both. Ashe suddenly found herself wishing she'd spent an extra point or two in agility rather than strength.

She heard no sharp crash yet, the blasting apart of a body that followed a player's death. And it was that 'yet' that kept her running. She recalled the open fields just beyond the Town of Beginnings on a day not so far gone as it felt, and boy trapped beneath a wolf while she watched and laughed.

Just ahead of her Rikki had schooled his expression to neutrality, though his full-speed run spoke plenty. She didn't doubt that the same memory had sprung to his mind as well; made more painful by his friendship with the player she'd only known as Cyril.

The roars of multiple Kobold Troopers ricocheted off the dungeon walls followed by shouts in a shrill, panicked voice.

"G-get away! Leave me alone!"

The familiar whir of a sword skill queuing up hit her ears, then the heavy crash of an axe striking wood.

Renee disappeared around a corner and Ashe heard another cry. When she rounded the corner herself, the blonde had already tackled one of the two Kobold Troopers to the floor. Rikki threw the next with his shield and steel followed.

Ashe concerned herself with the small player collapsed on the ground between the two battles. They held their battered buckler up with their left hand and clutched tight to the flanged mace in their right. She crouched down in front of the player and tried gently to move the buckler out of the way.

"No!"

With a screech they whipped their mace up at the brunette's head. Ashe grabbed the weapon's shaft to stop it before it collided with her skull. Suddenly, she didn't regret those extra points she'd put into strength.

"Hey, hey… it's okay. We're here to help." She said to try to calm them down.

The arm gripping the mace beside her head relaxed, the buckler dropped away to the side and Ashe got her first good luck at the player. It was the same girl that had bolted past them when they'd left Tolbana earlier that morning. Big brown eyes, wet from terror stared back at her from under bangs of the same colour. She couldn't have been more than thirteen or fourteen years old.

"Ashe!"

Ashe's head snapped up and she saw the nearly dead Kobold Trooper Renee had attacked charging toward her and the little girl. She snatched her halberd up off the ground beside her and drew an upward arc along the beast's body. The kobold froze mid-step, then exploded into a flurry of pixels. She heard the same sound effect coming from behind her a moment later and turned to see Rikki walk through the splash effect.

"She okay?" he asked.

"She's alive."

Looking back at the girl now, her health was below thirty percent. Another couple of hits from those beasts and that would have been wiped out. Rikki nodded once before he began fishing about in his pack. He produced a regenerative potion after a moment's searching and crouched down to give it to the girl. Her eyes were fixed to the red vial and no sooner had Rikki held it out to her did she snatch it up in her hands and down the whole thing.

Ashe looked back over her shoulder at Renee then. The blonde furrowed her brow disapprovingly as the girl, finished with the item, sat with her hands in her lap and breathed.

"Isn't there something you should be saying to him?" Renee asked her. She pointed a finger at Rikki, and then swept it around to gesture to all three of their party. "To us?"

The girl's health climbed back up into the yellow before she uttered a word.

"… Thanks."

Renee wasn't pleased with that. She went to adjust her glasses to dispel her frustration and, realizing again that she still didn't have them, played it off by pushing her fingers back through her hair.

"What's your name?" Ashe asked as she knelt back down in front of the girl. The girl looked straight at her for a second, opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it and turned her face away.

Rikki inched closer. He pointed to himself and said, "I'm Rikki. What about you? What's your player name?" He spoke softly, and his general demeanour was a stark contrast to his usual grumpy self around her and Renee. Ashe never would've thought he'd have a soft spot for kids. The girl's eyes flicked up to look at him, but still no words came out. "Was it you leaving behind all those beat up Kobolds?" he asked. They waited a moment, and she nodded slowly.

The brunette felt a quick tap on her shoulder and turned to see Renee hunched over behind her. Cutlass belted back at her hip she looked ready to move on.

"Let's go," she urged. When Ashe didn't move immediately, Renee pulled her up by the arm and off to the side. In a hushed voice she said, "She's fine now. We can leave."

"She's a kid."

"And she made it all the way up here," she said and threw her arms out to the sides. "We even healed her. She'll be fine."

Ashe had to take a moment to process what her friend was suggesting. That girl, whatever her name was, had made it up here, yes. But she'd left a trail of partially injured beasts behind her. And judging by the way she'd locked in on that potion Rikki gave her, she didn't have any healing items left.

"Why don't we just take her with us?" The idea popped out of her mouth before she'd fully considered it.

Renee shook her head and hands both. "No. No more people."

"You mean no kids," Ashe corrected her. The way Renee started pouting told her she'd been right. It was no secret that Renee didn't like kids. She was an awkward mess with them at the best of times. Still, in circumstances like these Ashe had hoped she might make an exception, even despite the girl's reluctance to talk to them. She looked back over her shoulder then. Rikki was still crouched down in front of the girl spinning words.

"It's not like it has to be a permanent thing," Ashe said as she turned back to her friend. They were nearly at the top of the labyrinth. The boss room was just over their heads, and the money rewarding its discovery waited back in Tolbana. "We'll just bring her with us until we're done here and we can drop her back off in town when we get back."

"We already have our hands full protecting ourselves, Ashe. And look, her gear's about to fall apart. What are we going to do if it breaks before we leave? If she was smart she would have turned back ages ago."

The words were barely out of her mouth before Ashe noticed something change in her display. A new name and health bar appeared in their party.

-Ashe-

-Renee-

-Rikki-

-Rosalind-

So that little girl's name was Rosalind? It was a nice name but it left Ashe feeling like the odd one out.

Renee went slack jawed when she noticed. She recovered quickly and leaned around Ashe to bear down on the boy responsible for this.

"Rikki!"

"What? What'd I do?" He jumped to his feet.

"That!" she cried as she marched over. She pointed to Rosalind who still sat on the ground refusing to look up at them.

"What's wrong with it?" Rikki protested.

Renee looked about ready to start crying out in frustration by then. She groaned loudly into her hands instead. The boy looked over her to Ashe, but a sigh was the best response that she could give him.

"She isn't coming with us." Renee said when she lifted her head again.

Rikki wasn't having it. "That isn't just for you to decide."

Seeing that she was outnumbered two to one Renee threw her hands up in surrender.

"For the love of – fine! Just… fine."

Ashe helped the girl back to her feet and when she looked back Renee was already heading back down the corridor they'd come from.

"Where is she going?" Rosalind asked.

"We're trying to find the boss room," Ashe answered as the three followed a short distance behind.

The girl looked thoughtful about that for a moment. She tightened her grip on her weapons but didn't say a word.

It was a hard push up the last couple floors of the labyrinth but it wasn't all bad. It gave Renee a chance to blow off a bit of steam. And she got the I-told-you-so moment she wanted when, on the top floor of the tower, Rosalind's buckler reached the end of its durability. Luckily it held out until the demi-human attacking her was nearly dead. A single swing from Renee's cutlass was enough to finish it off, no sword skill needed.

When the splash effect from the beast's death dissipated the blonde turned to the three of them. She pointed at Ashe and Rikki in turn, then to Rosalind. "Keep your ears peeled and her covered."

She said it like they needed to be told. Without another word between them, Ashe and Rikki took up positions in front of and behind the girl. She could tell by the tightening her friend's cheeks, seen in rear profile, that Renee counted Rosalind's loss of a shield as a small victory. The mace would be next if they weren't careful.

Breathing deep, Ashe rested her halberd over her shoulder. She made up her mind then to take it into the NPC blacksmith in Tolbana for maintenance when they returned later.

"How much longer do you think?"

The question came from Rikki and the back of the group. Ahead of her, Renee pulled up her menu. She had it set to invisible, the default setting for all their menus, but there were only so many things she could be looking at. The map they'd been trying to finish was the obvious choice.

"If we went the right way it should –"

She never got to finish the sentence as a raucous cheer of multiple voices filled the corridor. They sounded close, too.

Renee stopped and craned her neck back to ask, "How much you wanna bet it's just up ahead…?"

Hearing her, Rikki slumped forward and groaned. If those voices were what they thought, then they could all kiss this money-making opportunity goodbye. Out of them all, Rosalind was the only one who didn't appear disappointed. In fact, after she heard Renee, the girl took off running toward the voices.

"Hey! Get back here!" Renee shouted after her.

They followed after her and, unsurprisingly, Renee caught her first. She grabbed the girl by the back of her shirt collar and Rosalind came to a halt with a choked yelp.

"Let go! Let go, let go, let go!" she shouted. Frowning, Renee handed her off to Rikki and walked forward to peer around the corner.

Ashe went with her. She could hear voices, all of them male and all of them excited, just up ahead. Sure enough, the great double doors of the boss chamber were right there at the end of the corridor. Camped right in front of them was a full party. She caught a few snips of their conversation.

"We found it!"

"You were right, Diavel."

They all seemed to be talking to a young male with bright blue hair. Diavel. That had been the name of the man who led the boss strategy meeting in Tolbana yesterday evening. Renee choked back a sound in her throat and the two of them returned back to Rikki, still waiting with an impatient-looking Rosalind.

"It's the boss room, isn't it?" He asked. Whatever hope he'd still clung to was gone when Ashe nodded. "Could we maybe still make it back to town before them? We have the map data, don't we?"

"If that one's thing wasn't about to break, maybe."

Rosalind pulled a face at that. They'd have to be careful about which battles they fought on their way back down the tower. Avoiding the fights altogether would mean taking longer getting back to town. Renee gestured for them all to follow and started back down the way they'd come. Ashe and Rikki slowly followed and subsequently stopped when Rosalind didn't move.

"No!" she cried.

Ashe and Rikki shared a quick glance before she went back to the girl.

"Why are we leaving?"

"We found what we came for. So now–"

"We can't!" Rosalind cut her off. "It's right there. I need to go home."

"We're going home right now." Renee looked visibly frustrated as she stopped to speak.

Ashe pursed her lips a moment then asked, "Are you playing with family? Friends? We'll take you to them once we get back to Tolbana." The girl's fervent head shaking told her no. She should have expected that answer.

"I have to kill it. I need to get back…"

Beside her, Ashe heard Renee choke back a laugh at that. "Good luck with that, kid. No shield and almost no weapon, you'll be lucky if you make it back to this hallway."

"Renee."

The blonde glanced at her and then immediately turned her eyes away. "It's true," she muttered.

Ashe didn't agree with her choice of words but they appeared to strike something in the girl. Her frantic energy was gone and she hung her head. Rikki stepped in, and the boy nudged her along from behind. The walk back down the labyrinth floors was a long and quiet one.

.

* * *

.

"What more do you want from me?" Renee asked. From two tables down Ashe watched the blonde hunch forward over the table. Across from her Argo the Rat was enjoying the meal Renee had bought for her to cover half of the information fee.

They'd been at it for the last ten minutes already. Renee, for some reason or another had bought information on that Diavel character, and after delivering that, the Rat had talked her way into a free copy of their group's map data. News was already spreading about the newly discovered boss room and a second strategy meeting had been scheduled for later today so it wasn't like the data was worth much anymore.

Then, in her usual nasal voice, the girl with the whiskers happily began her next round of interrogation. "I want to know about the boss. Stats, weapons, attack patterns."

"You do remember that I died, right? Like… every single time?" Argo stared at her for a few seconds. "Did I mention that I died really quickly?" The Rat set herself up to start writing things down, fingers poised over an invisible keyboard.

"I'm not getting anything back for this, am I?"

"I'll give you a deal next time, dig?"

Ashe strained her ears to listen to the next part. Until this point, the boss was one of few things Renee hadn't been willing to share with her or Rikki but the pair chose that point to drop the volume of their voices. Try as she might, the best she could catch in the next handful of minutes was, "I don't know. I don't know swords that well. It was big? It really hurt to get hit with?"

"You're helpful…"

"I had other things to remember… Oh! There was one thing!"

Everything past that was too quiet for her to hear and Ashe gave up trying. But Argo seemed satisfied by the end of it all, and bid them each a quick farewell before stepping out. Ashe moved over a spot and pulled the third plate over with her. Renee plopped herself down in the opened space and with a loud _clunk_ dropped her head against the table.

"So that whole all-knowing thing you've been doing…" Rikki began, having evidently been listening in as well. The corners of his mouth turned up and he stopped.

Lifting her head just enough to look at them, Renee forced a grin and asked her, "Can I kill him?"

"No."

"Just a little bit?"

Again, "No."

Pouting, Renee sat up and turned to call over an NPC. Ashe pushed the plate part way back and said, "I already ordered for you."

Renee eyed it curiously a moment before dragging it the rest of the way over. "So long as you're feeling generous, you mind telling me why she's still here?" She jabbed a fork at Rosalind sitting directly across the table from her. Equipped with a brand new buckler from Tolbana's weapon shop, and her mace fully repaired, the girl paid her no mind as she shoved a spoonful of bean curry into her mouth.

"Why not?" The answer came from Rikki. "She can't be any worse than you."

Renee's fork turned to him then. "I'll remember that next time you need help."

"I don't like you…" Rosalind muttered when she finally looked up from her bowl.

"I like this munchkin. She's smart." Rikki grinned and placed a hand on the girl's head. She frowned as he ruffled her hair but did nothing.

Ashe leaned forward onto her elbows to watch and shook her head as Renee wordlessly waved her fork at him once more. The blonde regarded Rosalind with a sneer a moment later.

"The feeling's mutual."

* * *

Next Time: Holding Back

 **A/N: Three chapters in record time for me! Ok, that's a little sad but I'm gonna be happy about it anyway. From this point onward I'm going to be introducing a whole host of new characters, of which little Rosa is the first. But I promise, this is the last of the 'R' names. I've got the next chapter written already, minus a few edits still to be made, but after that they'll be posted as I finish them. I'm holding onto the hope, though, that that doesn't mean extended breaks between updates.**

 **Again, if you've read this far, why not leave a review? I'd love to hear what you guys think about the story so far.**


	4. Holding Back

**Chapter 4: Holding Back**

December 3, 2022

Floor 1

Back and forth. Left and right.

Rikki wasn't able to even sit in peace due to Renee and Rosalind's jostling on his right.

"Stop poking me!" Renee hissed repeatedly at the youngest of their group. For her part, Renee was no better. In fact it had been her who had started it.

Rosalind jabbed a particularly forceful elbow into their party leader's side and Renee was knocked over sideways into him. That was already annoying enough but she pushed off him to try and bump the younger girl off the amphitheatre bench.

He knocked shoulders with Ashe on his left. "Knock it off!" He growled at the two. From the beginning he'd known they wouldn't be able to get along. They all knew. The two of them had been bickering almost non-stop since returning to Tolbana. And yet they had made the conscious decision to sit next to each other, probably just to get a rise out of one another.

Renee unsurprisingly pointed to the mace wielder struggling to keep from falling onto the landing. "She started it," she lied.

"Nu-uh," Rosalind said once she regained her spot.

And within seconds they were right back at it, and he was ignored. With a huff Rikki leaned forward onto his knees.

On his other side Ashe offered, "Wanna switch seats?"

"Would it make them stop?" he asked. She shook her head. "Figured as much."

They'd been sitting in Tolbana's amphitheatre for the last ten minutes waiting for the boss meeting to begin. Other players, he suspected no more than forty or so, started trickling in at about the same time and spread themselves out across the landings. This was the second such meeting. The first had happened only yesterday and was what had prompted them to scour the labyrinth in search of the boss room. Renee had appeared indifferent to attending this one after the discovery had been stolen out from under them and Rikki couldn't say he felt any different. It had been at little Rosa's insistence that they made their way here this evening.

Another attempted body check caused both girls to fall against him and pinned his arm uncomfortably to his side. "Oh for crying out loud…" he muttered, then to Ashe, "Switch me." Laughing quietly at him, the brunette nodded and stood up. Eagerly he slid into her spot and she placed herself between him and Renee.

"It was supposed to start at four, right?" he asked as he glanced over at the halberdier. She rocked with the rough-housing of the two beside her but she weathered it with a much greater deal of patience than he had.

"I'm pretty sure," she said, lifting her chin as she consulted her memory and then the clock in her HUD. It was only just past four now so he was just being impatient but he'd blame that on the other two.

Ashe was rather pretty, he thought. In profile and with her dark hair tied back, he could see the finer features of her face. Her eyes, the same colour as her hair, narrowed as she considered something in her menu. The mishap in the labyrinth from this morning no longer looked like it weighed on her shoulders or at least not heavily. Rikki glanced down at his left forearm where his shield would typically rest and frowned. She swung her wrist to dismiss the screen and looked back to the amphitheatre floor, a smile pulling at the corners of her mouth.

He started to follow suit, just as someone began to clap loudly from the lowest level. Rikki spotted a male stepping into the center. From his bronze armour and long blue hair he recognized the man as Diavel, the same guy that had hosted the first meeting and that they'd seen in front of the boss room just this morning.

"Okay, let's get this underway, folks. I have an important announcement to make. We've found the boss room!" He raised his arms high overhead to a low rumble of hushed mutterings between players. But the self-proclaimed knight was not deterred by the lackluster response as he reached into the pouch behind him and produced a few bound pieces of parchment. "By now everyone should have purchased a copy of this."

Far to his right Rikki heard, "What's that?" He turned to see Renee and Rosalind finished their squabbling. The latter leaned forward with curiousity.

"Here," he said and produced his copy of the pamphlet that he'd picked up on their way from the inn. He tossed it to her and the girl began pouring over it. Having already read it over while they walked, Rikki didn't think he'd need it. All around them he could see other players diving into their inventories in search of the item. A few got up and left for the NPC shop stall in the corner of the fountain plaza to grab a free copy before returning to their friends.

Despite being only three pages, the pamphlet was packed full of information, including the boss' estimated health, the reach and speed of his attacks, his accompaniment of Ruin Kobold Sentinels, and, of course, his name.

«Illfang the Kobold Lord»

"Hey, some of my stuff's in here, too," Renee said as she glanced over Ashe's copy. A smug grin plastered on her face she pointed to the section on the boss' sword skills. "Who's useless now, miser?"

"Still you," Rikki retorted. He didn't even need to look to know she was pulling a face at him. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't seem to wrap his head around the idea that someone that immature was not only almost the same age as him, but also their party leader.

Ignoring the both of them, Ashe flipped through the rest of the pages and turned the pamphlet over. "From the SAO beta test… Details may not match the current version of the game." Rikki glanced over then and saw the same words written in red font across the back of the page.

Diavel straightened down below them and called back the attention of all the players present. "Let us be thankful for this information, my friends!" he said. "Regardless of its source, this guide is going to save us two or three days of scouting the boss. I'm actually quite grateful for this. It's the reconnaissance missions that carry the greatest risk of fatalities, after all."

Heads bobbed up and down in agreement, though Rikki spied a few whose faces were still twisted with anxiety.

"If these figures are correct, the boss' numerical stats aren't too dangerous. If SAO was a normal MMO, we could probably take it out with an average level three – no, five levels below the enemy's."

Except this wasn't a regular MMO, Rikki thought, and he wasn't sure how comfortable he'd be going into that room knowing his level wasn't at least as high as the boss'. But the speed of their levelling had slowed over the last week. Individually, the monsters they encountered were giving progressively less experience, a sure sign that they were nearing the level cap for the floor.

Unabated, the knight continued, "So if we work on our tactics and come equipped with plenty of pots for healing, it should be possible to win without any deaths. No, let me rephrase that: We're not going to have any deaths, period. On my pride as a knight, I swear this to you!"

Someone in front and to the left of their group raised a cheer at Diavel's bold statement and a round of applause followed. Rikki couldn't find the energy to manage more than a couple lazy claps.

"All right, now I think it's time to actually start planning out the battle! After all, we can't start taking roles until we've formed a proper raid party. First off, form into parties with your friends and others around you."

All around players were already beginning to gather together into bunches of six. Their party was two bodies short of being full and he began looking around for people to fill those spots when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

"I think we're leaving," Ashe said before glancing back over her shoulder. He followed her gaze and saw Renee getting to her feet with a stern look that belied her usual immaturity. The blonde looked to each of them in turn and gestured for them to get to their feet, quietly though, so as not to disturb the ongoing strategy meeting happening below.

Still clutching his copy of the Rat's Boss guide, Rosalind turned in her seat and asked, "Why are we leaving? It's only just starting."

Shrugging her shoulders, Renee answered, "Because we're not taking part in it. Now come on. Get up."

Braid swinging as her head swiveled back and forth between him and Renee, Rosalind gave him a pleading look. With a sigh, he got up from his own seat and gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Let's go." She appeared hurt by that but closed her mouth and quietly got to her feet.

The group of four climbed the last few landings leading out of the amphitheatre. Behind them, Rikki could hear Diavel starting up again, making comments on the parties that had been formed. They didn't stop. But once they passed the nearby fountain Rosalind couldn't hold her tongue any more.

"Wait," she said. "Why aren't we going to join them?"

"Because I said so," was Renee's immediate answer.

Rosalind didn't appear convinced. Honestly, neither was Rikki. "You were looking for the boss room yesterday, though."

"We were. So what?"

"So don't you want to go home?"

"No, we do, but…" Ashe trailed off.

Renee picked up for her and pointed a finger at the ground. "This is the first floor." She flicked her wrist to point up at the sky, and the giant disc 300 feet over their heads. "That's the bottom of the second. There's another ninety-eight above it. Participating in that battle isn't going to get us out of here any faster."

"You don't know that," Rosalind protested.

"No, I do, actually." Renee said. "But if you're really that eager to get yourself killed, you're free to go back."

"Renee!" Ashe said.

"That's enough." Rikki stepped in at the same time.

The blonde leaned away from them both, but recovered quickly. "What? Do I have to remind you that this one almost died today?"

"I was doing fine."

"Define fine," she said, and fixed her eyes on the younger girl. "Look, a boss fight is dangerous. For all of us, not just you. And maybe you've forgotten, but we only get one chance here. I don't plan on wasting it." There was a hard edge to her voice just then that Rikki hadn't heard before, and neither he nor the other two around her had any words to counter with. Rosalind held her gaze for a few seconds, and then lowered her eyes to her feet.

"So, what now?" he asked. They had plenty of free time on their hands now that they'd decided (been told) that they weren't joining the boss battle.

Renee lifted her eyes up to him before straightening. "You've got a good stash of money on you, right?"

"Well, yeah…"

She smiled faintly and banged a fist against his chest plate. "Then it's about time we finished upgrading your stuff."

He stared down at her, mouth hard. "My stuff's fine. Worry about yours first."

"You're our only tank, stupid. I'm looking after everyone here by making sure your equipment is in good condition."

"But I have a shield, too," Rosalind cut in. She lifted her new buckler to prove it. It was a sturdier version of the one she'd stormed the labyrinth with, although it hadn't been upgraded yet since they'd only bought it a couple hours prior. The small number of attempts on the thing hardly made it worth it.

Renee spared the girl a glance. "You'll need a better one than that before you start getting any weird ideas in your head." It wasn't the worst thing she could have said, and something in her tone told Rikki that she had resigned herself to the young teen sticking with them.

"So we're heading to the lakes, then?" Ashe asked. Rosalind gave her a questioning look and she went on to clarify. "The «Swamp Kobold Trappers» around there drop some of the ingredients we need for his sword."

Renee nodded her head in agreement. "And mine, too," she said, hand on the hilt of her «Pale Edge».

.

* * *

.

"How many more of these do we need?" Rosalind whined from behind her shield. The small kobold that attacked her had a flanged mace delivered into the side of its wolfish face and burst into pixels a moment later.

Rikki was surprised with how easily she was dealing with them. They'd come at her and be repelled by her shield first, and the slate grey metal of her weapon would follow, lit with blue light. Watching her, it became clear to him that her surviving the first month alone was no fluke. She'd learned quickly.

"As many as you can shove in your inventory in the next ten minutes," Renee shouted out her response as she whirled her own blade around to catch another in the chest. Ashe could be seen close by doing much the same.

Tolbana's blacksmithy closed at eight, just like every shop. It was just past that now so time wasn't an issue with collecting items anymore. They'd just get what they could while they still had some light and drop by for upgrades tomorrow.

He bashed his shield against another Trapper and heard the tinkling of bells as it exploded and dropped another «Kobold Fang» into his inventory. With just an eight percent chance of dropping, the sound was like music to his ears. Along with the base stuff needed for upgrading, additional materials were also required, both to determine which of the five parameters were improved, and to increase the upgrade's chances of success. The enlarged canine sitting in his inventory was one of a few currently available drops that boosted Sharpness.

The cor and experience he received appeared briefly in front of him before he turned away from the window and toward the next enemy.

The Kobold Trappers were tricky mobs, capable of inflicting a «Disarm» effect on a player. To add insult to injury, they spawned in sizable groups, with no fewer than five at a time. For a lone player of a lower level, if their weapon were knocked away into the mud and panic set in, the wolfish little creatures could become decidedly lethal. Hunting them in a group, however, considerably lessened their threat. It also made acquiring the more rare drops needed for equipment enhancement a whole lot easier.

"We should start back before it gets dark, though, shouldn't we?" Ashe asked.

Frankly, Rikki agreed. Once the sun set any mobs they encountered would become more aggressive. At their current level it wasn't a death sentence but caution was still necessary.

"Can we go back now? I'm tired," Rosa said off to his right.

Renee almost looked betrayed in the dimming light, but after casting her eyes around to Ashe and Rikki, both of whom voiced their agreement, she slumped her shoulders. She dispatched the last Kobold Trapper around them. Further down the lake bed Rikki could see the darkened silhouettes of another group. They were too far away to launch themselves at the party, but if they lingered here more than another couple minutes, some would spawn close by and fix that.

"How many did we get?" Rikki asked as they all gathered back together to begin the trek back to town. He was scanning his inventory as he walked, counting up the number he'd acquired. "Seven for me." For almost four hours of work he thought it was pretty good.

"Three here..." Renee sounded despondent.

Ashe gave her a one-arm hug from the side. "I've got five you can use for your upgrades."

"Really?" she asked.

The brunette nodded. "I'm not using them."

Several steps ahead of them Rosalind threw her arms high overhead and cheered. "That means I win!" she cried. "I got ten!"

"Good job," Rikki said, although there'd been no competition between them, and stepped up beside her to ruffle her hair. Her smile widened and she pumped her arms excitedly. All the frustration from earlier had evaporated.

He glanced back over his shoulder to Ashe and Renee. The latter had her arms wrapped around the former's waist in a tight hug and her head rested on the taller girl's shoulder. "Uh, hey, hate to disturb you two but… you've got enough Steel plates for the both of us, right?"

The way Renee glared at him made it seem like he'd just intruded on something deeply personal. It certainly looked the part. But after a few seconds of staring she grumbled, "Yes. I have enough."

"All I wanted to know," he said and turned back around.

By the time they returned to Tolbana the town was silent save for the nighttime ambience: a soft, far away tune that in any other game would have him standing idle just to listen to the end. A small handful of NPCs were still ambling about, but for the most part the streets were empty and all the windows dark.

"You guys go on ahead," he said. "I'll catch up in a bit."

The girls turned to look at him, all of them questioning, but they nodded and continued down the street to the inn. Rikki took the next right and made his way to the fountain plaza. The teleport gate stood on the opposite end from where he entered. Drumming his fingers on his sword's pommel, he crossed the empty plaza and stepped into the space under the stone arch. There was only one other gate it was connected to right now.

"Teleport: Town of Beginnings."

There was a flash of light before his eyes. Tolbana vanished behind it, and when it faded, the dreary sight of the starting town's main square took its place. From a design standpoint the two towns didn't appear all that different. Were it not for the stout clock tower immediately behind him and the sheer difference in size, they'd be practically identical.

Breathing deep through his nose, the boy stepped down and around the gate. Heading north, it was a straight shot to the Black Iron Palace. The walk was less crowded than the last time he'd made it.

His steps echoed off the castle's polished floor and came to a stop several feet from the giant stone monument located at the far end of the entrance hall. Unlike the last time he'd been here, the large front hall was lit with pale blue torches that threw odd shadows about the place. Between them and the heavy silence of the town just outside, the monument appeared even more imposing. Ten thousand names were etched into its surface, but even in the gloom he could see that a fifth of that number had already been struck through.

One month. Two thousand lives. No floors cleared.

The reality of it was soul-sucking.

Stepping closer, he dragged a knuckle down one of the columns near the beginning, stopped, and tapped.

-Cyril-

-5:46 pm, November 6, 2022-

-Fell in battle-

"Shit…" he breathed as he read the lines again. They hadn't changed since the last time he'd read them, though the words gave the impression of an end more noble than Cyril had received. The guilt was a lead weight in his stomach. He hadn't killed Cyril, but he may as well have. Granted, he hadn't known, neither of them had. But Rikki had dropped his friend's health, watched the wolf tear the rest away, and laughed. He had to live with that. Frowning, Rikki raised his hand to dismiss the window.

"So this is where you went?" The familiar voice came from almost directly behind him.

Rikki jumped, and turned his head to look. "You're like a pop-up book from hell, you know that?" he hissed when he spotted Renee, cat-quiet, stepping up to monument on his left. He hadn't heard her come in at all.

"And proud of it." She was grinning as she spoke but her eyes were focused on the stone slab in front of them.

Deciding it futile to say anything else on that topic, he, too, turned his eyes back to the monument and closed the window with Cyril's name on it. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you, I think."

"Who do you have to check on?" he asked. Ashe and Rosalind were back in Tolbana and both were very much alive.

"Just someone I know." Her eyes stopped scanning and he thought he saw the faintest hint of a smile in her profile as she glanced up. From this angle he couldn't tell what name she was looking at.

"Someone you know?" Rikki asked. "Or someone you _know_?"

Renee scrunched up her nose at the last bit. "Ha-ha, you're not funny," she said. Then she looked away again, back to the mystery name on the monument. She stayed like that for nearly half a minute before Rikki decided to break the silence.

"So is this where you've been disappearing to for the last couple weeks?"

Every few days, after they'd finished their runs through the fields (and recently the labyrinth), Renee had made a habit of breaking off after dinner. Where she always went, neither Rikki nor Ashe had known. There was a location feature available for people registered to a player's friend list, but it only shower the floor they were on. Since this was the only floor available and neither of them had levelled up their «Search» skill enough to get the «Tracking» mod, finding Renee had been difficult.

Renee shrugged. "Maybe. Who knows?"

He took that as a yes. But that raised the question of what she kept coming here for. Or rather, who. She didn't elaborate.

"Well, I got what I came for so I'm going to head back." Renee pulled her shirt down at the edges and fixed her vest before she started back toward the entrance, arms folded loosely behind her back. "And for the record," she said over her shoulder, "I don't actually know them. I probably never will."

And then she was gone, as quietly as she'd come. Soon after, he followed.

.

* * *

.

"Rikki!"

He woke up someone pounding incessantly against his door. Groaning, he raised himself up and looked at it across the room.

"Rikki! Rikki, wake up!" Rosalind's frantic voice carried through the wood.

"I'm awake, geez…" he muttered and hurriedly called up his menu to dress himself before he went to open the door for her. He briefly wondered what could be so important. It was only a little before noon so it wasn't exactly early, but they had no plans for the day beyond upgrades so he'd been hoping to sleep a little later.

Rosalind was midway through another knock when he pulled the door open and nearly hit him in the stomach. She pulled her hand back quickly and stepped back, iron tassets clinking with the movement. With her mace on her hip and buckler fastened to her left arm, she already looked prepared to tackle a dungeon.

Stifling a yawn he looked down and asked, "What's the matter?"

"You have to come see," was all she said as she reached out to grab his arm and pull him into the hall.

"See what?"

"The guy in the square," Rosalind answered. It didn't clear up anything.

"Why don't you go grab the other two first, then we'll go see?"

All three of the girls had shared a room last night, he knew. Frankly he thought it a bit unfair that they could split the cost three ways and he had to cover his by himself. It was a small price, though, and he had already thought about whether or not another guy in the party might fix that problem. He'd dismissed it. Rikki kind of liked being the only guy in a party of girls, even if one of them drove him up the wall, and so he kept his griping to himself. Right now, however, he just wanted to see if Rosalind would leave and let him grab another few minutes of sleep. He was not so lucky.

"They're still sleeping."

Rikki groaned. So Ashe and Renee's sleep was more important than his? Leaning down onto his knees, he said, "Rosa, I was still sleeping."

"But you're awake now, so come on." There was no deterring her as she reached for his arm again and dragged him down the hall. He gave up and followed along rather than be pulled, and she guided him out onto the street.

She let go of him once they moved away from the inn and she was certain he wouldn't dip back inside, but she still impatiently ushered him along until they reached Tolbana's teleport plaza. There was a surprisingly large crowd gathered around it.

"What's going on here?" he asked. Rosalind came back around pushed him from behind, prodding him further. "I'm going, I'm going," he assured her.

He pushed past a few players to get to the center where he saw a vaguely familiar face standing. The male had definitely been present at yesterday's strategy meeting. Of that Rikki was certain but he couldn't place the guy's name. More than likely he hadn't actually heard it.

The boy raised his arms high over his head, a bright smile on his face. The teleport gate behind him looked different than Rikki remembered it being last night. Light pulsed in concentric circles within the large arch where before only a translucent film had covered the very bottom of the platform. Then the boy shouted for them all to hear, "Illfang has been defeated. We've made it to the second floor!"

The players around him began murmuring. Rikki looked down when he felt a tug on his sleeve.

"We made it," Rosalind cheered. "We're closer to home!"

"Yeah," he said and smiled as he patted her head. "We're getting there."

It had taken an entire month but they'd finally done it. The players of «Sword Art Online» had punched through to the next floor.

* * *

Next Time: Setting the Record Straight

 **A/N: Sorry, not sorry for skipping out on the first floor boss fight here. It's included in so many stories and everyone already knows how it ends so I felt it would be boring to shoehorn my characters into it. But fear not, there are a great plenty of boss fights yet to come. So who was it that Renee was checking up on? Keep reading to find out and I'll try to get the next few chapters ready in a timely fashion.**

 **Until then, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did, why not drop a review? If you didn't, why not leave me one anyway and tell what you think was wrong?**

 **~Red**


	5. Setting the Record Straight

**Chapter 5: Setting the Record Straight**

December 8, 2022

Floor 2

"Well, I _hope_ not. I'd never be able to finish it if they did that. I don't think they did, though."

Rosalind glanced up from her menu to where Renee and Ashe sat leaned up against the side of shack. The little ramshackle structure was one of very few things in the small clearing alongside an equally small spring, the lone tree Rosalind had propped herself up against, and the enormous boulder Renee was supposed to be trying to break.

It had already been a full day since Renee had initiated the quest, but her face was still marked by three dark lines on either cheek. An increasingly familiar sight on Aincrad's information broker, they looked wholly ridiculous on their party leader. But Renee's embarrassment over her appearance had faded over night, much like her confidence that she would clear the quest in half the time she'd taken in the beta.

"If the durability regenerated on its own over time I wouldn't be able to sleep. I don't think I have enough points in strength to keep up with it otherwise," Renee said.

Renee had been dutiful enough about keeping at it, or at least keeping up the appearance of effort, Rosalind thought. The girl had slumped down for a break the moment they'd entered the little clearing to check her progress. That break had since stretched for the last twenty minutes, and her and Ashe's conversation had been gradually ratcheting up in volume.

"So, then, what?" Ashe asked. "You just have to keep hitting it and hope that the next one finally wears out its durability?"

"Pretty much," Renee answered, then seeing Ashe's skeptical look added, "You'll learn to hate these quests soon enough."

"I already do."

"It'd probably go faster if I had put a few extra points in strength. Rikki could probably do it."

"No thank you," Rikki said flatly.

Rosalind huffed and gave a small shake of her head. He had spent the better half of their conversation trying his best to look disinterested and had been caught thrice already poking his head into the shack to look at the NPC monk sitting on its tatami mat.

A wide grin crossed Renee's face as she leaned to look around the corner at him. "What, you don't want your face painted? We could match!"

"Definitely no," he answered and made a point of stepping away from the shack.

Rosalind lowered her eyes back to the holo keyboard under her fingers and resumed her typing. The habit of logging each day's events was already so ingrained as to make her fingers itch when she sat idle. And despite the early hour, Rosalind had already managed to fill half a page's worth, detailing the long trip here from Urbus and the monsters encountered.

As a party they'd engaged in dozens of brief fights in the space between the second floor being unlocked and Renee holing herself up in this clearing. And although she hated to admit it, the notes Rosalind had accumulated since the first day had been grown larger with constant revision in that time. As a relative newcomer to these sorts of games, Rosalind didn't trust herself to remember everything, and without the security of a respawn point to make trial and error a viable choice she had reluctantly accepted Renee's help, offered under the guise of brushing up on the information for herself and given with an air of surprise that Rosalind hadn't already figured some things out already.

"I don't play a lot of these games! I wasn't even supposed to be playing this one."

The argument had the intended effect of quelling Renee's thinly veiled teasing. And perhaps out of sympathy for their shared circumstance as prisoners inside the game, the older girl had made an honest attempt at answering some of her questions.

She had gotten an idea about Sword Skills before she'd even put on the helmet, but only gotten a grasp on them after watching other players from the gates of the Town of Beginnings. And she'd figured out before long how much experience was offered by a select few types of mobs. That information she'd weighed a little more heavily in her risk calculations over the first month. Some other basic mechanics she'd figured out through the 'Help' tab available in her menu. Now she'd added in notes on the behaviour and possible drops of some of this floor's creatures, a supplanted description of equipment enhancement and the more nitty-gritty details of the game's combat mechanics. She'd even gotten a hashed out plan for distributing her stat points for the next few levels, assuming she kept with her current skill set.

With all of that she'd managed, with help, to take on one of the «Trembling Oxen» out in the north fields, though she'd rather not do so again until she'd raised her level some more.

That had raised another question for her. Renee had confirmed that the approximate level cap for the second floor was higher than the floor below. Despite that and the slightly increased levels of the mobs available, none of them had advanced much farther in the day's since the floor's opening.

Frowning, Rosalind looked to where Ashe and Renee still sat talking. "Is there any way to level up faster?" she asked.

For a moment there was no answer. Then Renee, belatedly realizing that the question had been directed at her shrugged her shoulders. "Nothing that's available to us." She went quiet, the whiskers painted onto her face scrunched up and a moment later she added, "Best option right now is the «Windwasps» on the other end of the floor."

"Across that gorge?" Rosalind asked. Already she was trying to do a quick mental tally of the time it would take her to make the trek out that way. It had been a little more than a thirty minute walk here from Urbus. And the gorge was about another ten minutes out from the other end of town.

Renee nodded once. Rosalind closed her window and stood to go, checking her mace and shield as she turned. "You're leaving now?" Renee asked.

"Beats watching you do nothing."

Their party leader appeared stung by that but made no move to get up and resume her own quest. And when Ashe and Rikki each voiced their own concern she said, quite simply, "Even at her level she'd be hard-pressed to die against them. So long as she keeps clear of those cows on her way over she'll be fine."

.

* * *

.

Since Rosalind had to stop in Urbus anyway she thought it would be best to stop at the market square and pick up a few extra regenerative potions. She selected the amount she wanted from the vendor's menu, traded him the appropriate sum of cor, and then she was back on her way.

Or at least she should have been.

"I can add you to our party, what's your name?" asked the gangly-looking boy now blocking her path. "It's dangerous to go out there alone, you know? We can keep you safe." Three others standing behind him each voiced their own assurances as well. Not a one of them looked to be higher levelled than she was.

"I'm fine," Rosalind said flatly, just as she had the last three times he'd offered. The eastern exit was only a couple blocks away; she went to step around them. Again, he stepped into her path, and his party followed his lead, effectively blocking her from leaving.

"Come on," he urged. "It'll be fun."

Rosalind refrained from reaching for her mace. Within the town's borders she wouldn't be able to hurt him any, but he'd feel it. A solid swing would stun him long enough for her to get around, and the act might distract his friends long enough to let her get away.

One of the other boys, quiet until now but for his muffled laughter, made his own attempt to sway her. "I could give you a few pointers on how to use your shield, too, if you like? What do you say?"

Her fingers twitched toward her weapon's haft. "I'm. Fine." When the group still showed no signs of leaving her be, she reached for it. Even if it didn't work as planned, a part of her wanted to do it anyway out of spite.

The leather grip was in her hand when a fifth voice called, "Ah! There you are."

The boys looked past her, confusion and annoyance writ large across all their faces. Rosalind turned her head to look and spotted another boy she'd never seen before jogging toward them, his straight pepper-black hair, plain axe and shield bouncing with each step. He came up beside her and without introduction or clarification grabbed her wrist and kept running, nearly wrenching her arm as he pulled her along.

"H-hey!" Shouts of protest went up from the group behind them.

"Sorry!" the boy called to them over his shoulder, "our friends are waiting!"

He rounded a corner, the group vanished from sight, and he dragged Rosalind nearly two blocks out of her way before she dug in her heels and brought them both to a jarring halt. She yanked her hand back and the boy nearly off his feet, his own arms wind-milling as he hurried to right himself.

"Phew," he breathed and beat the dust from his weather-beaten leather armour before he turned to face her. He wasn't any taller than she was, and he looked about as old, if even. Dark hair fell in a short untidy mess over his face and partially obscured his eyes: they were the same shade of black but shone as bright as the smile he wore. "Sorry about that, it looked like they were bugging you. I'm Okazaki, by the way." Recalling his manners belatedly, he extended his hand to her.

Rosalind took it with some hesitation. "Rosa."

Okazaki either didn't notice or didn't care, but he'd no sooner let go of her hand than she was looking to remove herself from further interaction.

"Thanks and all, but I need to get going," she said and took a step backward for emphasis.

"Oh, yeah. Of course. You mind if I ask you a quick question before you go, though?"

"I already have a party," Rosalind said.

His cheeks rounded out in another smile and he shook his head. "Not that. I've got one, too. Or part of one, anyway." Here he hesitated and coughed into his hand to cover it. "I was just wondering, you looked like you knew where you were going, so I wanted to ask-"

"I'm not," she cut him off, already in her head having figured out the rest of that sentence, and neglected to mention the fact that a beta-tester was the leader of her party. "We just came up here when the floor opened. I've had a few days to figure it out." The statement was not in the least a lie and it seemed enough to convince him.

Okazaki nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Right. My bad. Lag and I just came up today to try and raise our levels some. He went off looking for something and I've been getting turned about all morning. Ah, but I'll leave you alone now." He gave a quick wave of his hand and turned to go.

"There's a guide for the floor back in the town square," Rosalind said, pointing back the way they'd come from.

He stopped, smiled, and dipped into his inventory. The little bundle of papers materialized in his hand a moment later, stamped with the Rat's mark. "Yeah, I found it. I wanted to take a whack at those bee things, but I don't think I can't get past the bulls by myself yet."

The boy's equipment didn't look like anything special: his axe and shield, though shiny and new, looked like the lower tier stuff available for purchase in one of any shops on the first floor, as did his spent leather armour. And if her own gear was of no greater quality, careful maintenance at least ensured it was in better condition.

"I'm heading there now, if you want to come," Rosalind offered. Although she liked little the idea of repeating the experience, he had helped her by getting rid of one headache. Helping him reach the «Windwasps» seemed appropriate. And she wouldn't mind another shield should she encounter one of the «Trembling Oxen» on her way over.

He stopped again, halfway through a step, and said, "Sure, if it's alright with you."

.

* * *

.

Luckily for her they managed to reach the stone bridge without having to fight anything. But the «Windwasps» on the other side were an unnerving sight to behold, for her and Okazaki both. The creatures bore an almost complete resemblance to their real-life counterparts, save for their colouration - black striped with mint green - and their size. Where a normal wasp could fit on the end of her finger, these creatures stretched to the length of her arm and were nearly twice as thick around.

Out the corner of her eye, Rosalind caught Okazaki giving his shield a dubious glance. She couldn't blame him for it either. At the sight of the wasp's stingers she found her reinforced buckler suddenly inadequate.

Her skin crawled at the mental image of the mammoth insect's stinger punching through the metal like tissue paper and she had to suppress a shudder.

"The guide says they're supposed to be easy," Okazaki said. They weren't yet in range to draw the creatures' attention but the boy took a few steps back onto the bridge before pulling out and flipping through the little book. "I'd feel better if I had a bigger weapon," he said a couple minutes later when he rejoined her, looking only slightly improved and clutching his hand-axe awkwardly in his right hand. He moved as if to grab it with both hands and was stopped by the round shield already strapped to his left forearm.

"Your friend is on his way?" Rosalind asked. He'd messaged the other boy shortly after they'd left Urbus and made only a passing comment since then about receiving a reply.

"Yeah," Okazaki answered. "He has a bit more shopping to do first, though. Do you mind if I stick with you until he gets here?"

Again, Rosalind found herself open to the idea of a second shield, even if not as an actual party member. And in Rikki's absence, Okazaki was the only other one around.

"Go ahead."

He took that for the answer it was and matched her step for step into the field.

For all that the wasps nurtured in Rosalind a sense of aversion, the guide did not lie when it said they were easy mobs. Their health and attack stats were mediocre, which made her earlier doubt of her shield seem silly. Even better, they followed a simple pattern consisting of just two attacks: a bite or a sting. It made them easy to block or avoid once she was able to distinguish between them, and her weapon's limited range ceased to be a problem once she started letting them come to her.

In the span of ten minutes she'd settled herself into a steady rhythm: the wasps would dart in for one of their two attacks, Rosalind would block and then hammer it down with a basic skill. At her level it took three cycles of that to kill one. She didn't have the accuracy to consistently hit the creature's weak point, nimble as they were. But by the steady flow of experience the wasps provided she expected that a good day's grind could bring up her level enough to drop that number.

Alerted to another wasp at her back by the mad buzzing of its wings, Rosalind spun on her heel, shield raised against it. The insect's body coiled forward, stinger poised, and it charged. Rosalind hopped back; she felt the stinger against her shield as a twinge going up her arm, easier by far to bear than the lancing impact of the giant oxen. Her mace lit up with the light of a skill and largely automatically slammed into the wasp's side. Its health was still slipping into the low green as it shuddered and sped backward, only to come rushing back seconds later. The wasp met her mace again, and then once more before it broke into bits of blue glass. A small screen read out the cor and experience gained and was dismissed before the fragments had fully gone.

A streak of red cut through the fading blue and she watched as Okazaki lunged forward with his axe and missed a retreating wasp by more than a foot. A quick look at both their health bars showed damage enough for a glancing blow to each. Okazaki's dropped again when he couldn't get his shield up in time to block the creature's stinger. He staggered back and then froze, balanced awkwardly on one foot with a peculiar yellow line encircling his head.

The wasp came back around straight as an arrow to bite him and dropped his health to half.

Rosalind rounded on it. Two quick steps brought her within striking distance and she brought her mace down in a hammer blow on its back. The wings were in the way, preventing a critical blow, but its health fell by a third and it was distracted long enough for the boy to recover from his stun. Okazaki's arm lashed out again, seemingly without a care for where he struck so long as he hit the wasp _somewhere,_ though at this distance he could scarcely miss _._ It was a basic skill, the only one she'd seen him using since they'd begun, and wasn't enough to finish it. Rosalind caught it with a second upswing and the stubborn bug finally burst.

"Break?" Okazaki's breathless question came a moment later. Rosalind turned to see him already looking about the wide expanse for some place that the wasps weren't.

"I'm level seven now," Okazaki admitted when prodded. "That last one bumped me up. Thanks again for that."

They'd managed to find a small space of ground that if it wasn't a registered safe area, it was at least out of the range of the «Windwasps'» wandering without quite entering into the territory occupied by the «Jagged Worms» to the south. A small collection of rocks and thin trees offered a bit of shaded seating.

But at level seven he was two levels below her, and she was already pushing it.

"I keep thinking it should be longer, or hit harder," he said, and gave his axe another experimental test swing. "And it still feels weird holding it with just one hand, you know?"

"Is that not your main weapon?"

"Nope. But it will be." He swung his wrist to bring up his menu and a few quick taps saw his hand-axe and shield replaced by a hefty two-handed battleaxe, its scuff marked metal and haft a proper match for his armour. "I'd gotten pretty used to this one, but Lag and I decided it would be easiest and probably safest to change weapon types sooner than later."

Rosalind blinked at that. She'd chosen a mace as her own weapon on the first day because it had seemed like something fun and different. Now she didn't think she'd want to risk using anything else. She'd need to sink too much time into a new weapon skill to make the attempt worth it. Even with the security of a full party she probably wouldn't even consider it. Yet he said it so evenly, as though it didn't bother him in the slightest.

"Is it just you and this other guy?" she asked, suddenly curious.

Okazaki nodded, but his smile was gone. "There were others. We wre going to start a guild together. They're gone now. But what about you?" he added a short moment later, thankfully since Rosalind, sorry to have asked, had gone quiet. "You've got a party, too, yeah?"

Rosalind shrugged. "Only for the last few days."

"That's how everything starts, isn't it? A little bit at a time." He got to his feet then, and with a wistful sigh pulled up his menu to swap out his battle axe for the smaller hand-axe and shield again. "I think I'm alright to keep going now. Sorry if I made you think you had to wait for me."

"You could probably still use your other axe for now. If you level up more first it'd give you more buffer room in case you mess up."

Okazaki needed no other coaxing. With one last look at the cloud of «Windwasps», he closed his menu, the larger two-handed variant still in hand with its blade resting in the dirt.

And its effects were clear. Even without the occasional critical hit on their weak points, his increased skill level and the weapon's own basic stats helped him to cut in half the time he spent on each mob. And there were no further misses from misjudging distance.

At some point in the following hour, when the haze of bugs began to thin and they'd each gained another level, Okazaki's friend finally joined them.

Lag wasn't a tall boy by any means, and was rather stout. Without a direct comparison she couldn't be sure if he was any taller than Renee but she doubted it. He had a young rounded face, the familiar sort that pricked at the back of her memory, with short brown hair parted evenly down the middle to fall to either side of his face. His eyes darted back and forth and he clutched his short sword – not the quarterstaff Okazaki had mentioned – tightly in his left hand as he navigated his way around the wasps toward them, though he looked more annoyed by the effort than nervous.

Okazaki jogged over to meet him and she stepped back from her own fight to watch him go. It had lasted longer than she'd expected, but this marked the end of their temporary party.

And then the wasp was buzzing angrily again, its body coiled inward to prepare another charge. Rosalind caught it on her shield and hammered away at the last of the creature's health. She turned to try and find another one, and instead saw Okazaki trying to wave her over. He became even more enthusiastic when he saw her looking.

"Lag and I were wondering if you wanted to join us for lunch," he said when she made her way over. Rosalind glanced around him to where his friend was busy going through his menu. Lag caught her looking a moment later and nodded acknowledgement. "As thanks for helping me. Lag's been practising cooking; he's getting pretty good now. You don't have to if you don't want to, though."

"Anything's better than the bland stuff they sell in town," Lag muttered. He came up beside them now, a sandwich in either hand. He gave one to Okazaki and offered the other out to her. "If you don't like it, just let me know. I can make something else. Over there is safe, right?" He jerked his head toward the area she and Okazaki had used for their break earlier.

Lag pushed the sandwich into her hands and started toward the spot, leaving her and Okazaki still standing.

"Like I said, if you don't want to–" Okazaki started.

"It's fine," Rosalind said. Truth be told she was beginning to feel hungry. Her last meal had been a quick breakfast back in Urbus early that morning, and that not as filling as she would have liked.

They sat down in a line with Okazaki in the center to enjoy their lunch. Lag produced a small blanket after they joined him and laid out an assortment of other food stuffs and small bottles. Rosalind could smell fresh-cooked beef as well as some spice she couldn't name, not quite strong enough to sting her nose, but almost.

"Sorry for the lack of variety. The oxen up here drop a lot of meat and I ran into a few on my way here. Makes for good practise, though," Lag said before starting on his own sandwich. He got one bite in before his face scrunched up and he looked at Okazaki. "Does yours taste weird?"

The other boy had already torn halfway through his, and in two more quick bites finished it off. He gave no answer but a shake of his head and Lag leaned further forward to direct the question at her.

Rosalind looked down hesitantly at the yet untouched sandwich in her hands, unsure of which boy's reactions to take as truth. But under Lag's expectant stare and with encouragement from her own waiting stomach she managed a mouthful. "No, mine's fine," she said. If the meat was a little more gamey than she was used to, it was no issue.

Lag was not encouraged by that and frowned as he reached out for one of the bottles containing a gross yellow liquid and poured it liberally on his sandwich. "So you fought those oxen on your way here?" she asked, curious.

"Oh, right," Okazaki began as he reached out for to the blanket for some sort of pastry, "is that what took you so long?"

"Yeah, they spawned too close to me halfway here," Lag said and frowned as he turned to address the other boy. "And what took me so long was getting _your_ upgrade materials."

"They?"

Okazaki had only been level six this morning, and she didn't imagine Lag to be much higher. As she still had her own share of difficulties taking down even one of the «Trembling Oxen», she had to wonder at how this boy had managed multiples.

He nodded. "I got some help from a couple other people, if that's what you're wondering."

Here Okazaki jumped in, his face brightened by the statement, "You think they'd help us with that guild quest too, once we find it?"

Lag gave a noncommittal shrug of his shoulders, one that failed to satisfy either one of his company.

"You mentioned guilds earlier," she said, "what's the difference between them and a regular party?" Besides the general number of players involved and a new tab in her inventory, she couldn't think of any worthwhile perks.

Again, Lag shrugged. "Nothing confirmed yet."

Rumours, then. Still, she would have liked to know about them, that she might put them to use if they proved true.

"It's mostly basic stuff," Okazaki began only after he'd polished off a second pastry. He was not so disinclined to share. "A separate guild inventory and treasury, an extension of the friend tracking feature. We're more interested in the buff, though. Apparently it's supposed to grant a small boost to your stats and experience gain."

"Nothing confirmed," Lag said again, more sharply this time.

Ignoring him, she turned eagerly toward the other boy. "Where did you hear that? Argo?" The info broker was her first thought. Renee certainly hadn't mentioned anything about this, and Rosalind had asked something in a similar vein just that morning. Okazaki shook his head and cast a glance sidelong at his friend. Lag had hunched his shoulders in close and gotten very quiet. And abruptly she understood.

"There's nothing in the guide for this floor or below, but Argo wouldn't sell us any info from the beta about it when we asked her," Okazaki continued in his lighthearted way after a moment, saving them from an uncomfortable silence. "Something about a reputation. She wouldn't even take our money."

"And you don't know where to find it?" He shook his head. "I think I know someone who might."

Rosalind hadn't expected an especially prompt reply after she'd sent the first message, but she had expected an answer. Renee couldn't avoid so direct a question – at least not forever. And though it took some time and a few choice messages, eventually a response was forthcoming.

 _Sure, I'm a liar for not mentioning a thing no one can do yet. Next floor up. Knock yourself out if we get there._

 _._

* * *

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Next Time: The Minor Bear

 **I can only claim laziness as my reason for not finishing this chapter sooner... I didn't like any earlier versions I'd written and got so frustrated with the rewriting that I just put the story aside and ignored it until a couple weeks ago. The timing kinda sucks since I'm leaving for school in another couple of weeks (Senior year of uni. Scary!) but I'm going to try and avoid making a habit of these long gaps between chapters.**


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